
gave their personal political views from their pulpits, openly defying tax rules
for nonprofit organizations.
legal group Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), garnered widespread support from
pastors nationwide who want to challenge a U.S. tax code, written in 1954, that
bars them from preaching about politics.
without fear of punishment,” said senior legal counsel Erik Stanley for ADF,
which promised to represent for free any pastor challenged by the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS). “No one should be able to use the government to
intimidate pastors into giving up their constitutional rights.”
filed complaints with the IRS against six of the 31 churches that participated.
“This is one of the most appalling Religious Right gambits I’ve ever seen,” said
Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church
and State. “These pastors flagrantly violated the law and now must deal with the
consequences.”
tax law.” “Church leaders are supposed to tend to Americans’ spiritual needs,
not behave like partisan political hacks,” Lynn said. “I urge the IRS to act
swiftly in these cases.”
candidates running for office is a First Amendment right of pastors, despite the
federal tax regulations that prohibit them from intervening or participating in
a political campaign.
church,” Stanley told Charisma Tuesday. “Pastors [should] be able to
stand in the pulpit, speak scriptural truth as they see it, and not have the
government come in, look over their shoulders and say, ‘You can’t say
that.’
very healthy separation between church and state, keeping the government out of
the pulpits of America when a pastor stands to speak scriptural truth.”
interest in participating. Stanley said for reasons of legal strategy the list
was narrowed down to 33 churches. He said two of those congregations plan to
participate in the coming weeks.
boards and that they all understood the risks and benefits of the project.
reporting themselves to the IRS by mailing transcripts of their sermons and
inviting investigations.
does nothing, then I think that speaks volumes in and of itself—that what these
pastors did was not a violation. We’re very much respectfully working within our
system of laws, which allows for … civil rights challenges.”
laws. “A pastor who knowingly violates federal tax law is setting a poor example
for his or her congregation,” he said. “Every pastor who took part in this stunt
ought to be ashamed.”
First Baptist Church in Bethlehem, Ga.; Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond,
Okla.; Warroad Community Church in Warroad, Minn.; Calvary Chapel on the Kings
Highway in Philadelphia; First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif.;
and New Life Church in West Bend, Wis.
presidential candidate John McCain, “it’s hard not to see the ADF scheme as
partisan in character.”
pulpits for too long and have every right to express their moral views regarding
elections and candidates. “We expected this to end in litigation,” Stanley said.
“This is a very serious, very sober-minded challenge to an unconstitutional law.
This is not a publicity stunt. This is not a political ploy.
party. It’s not a conservative or a liberal issue. The issue is not whether a
pastor or a church must endorse or oppose a candidate. The issue is, ‘Who gets
to regulate that?’ It’s not the government that should regulate that.” —Paul
Steven Ghiringhelli