Mustang
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Look at the highlighted part! Nobody is saying that pastors can't say what they want. As the IRS rule is currently written, churches and other charitable organizations are not permitted to campaign on election issues if they want to maintain their tax-exempt status.
So, for cryin' out loud, pick the ONE thing that's more important to you! Is it more important to you to have a tax exempt status? Or is it more important to you to be able to use your church to pontificate on political issues? And then CHOOSE that one instead of trying to have your cake and eat it too.
So, for cryin' out loud, pick the ONE thing that's more important to you! Is it more important to you to have a tax exempt status? Or is it more important to you to be able to use your church to pontificate on political issues? And then CHOOSE that one instead of trying to have your cake and eat it too.
This weekend, hundreds of pastors, including some of the nations evangelical leaders, will climb into their pulpits to preach about American politics, flouting a decades-old law that prohibits tax-exempt churches and other charities from campaigning on election issues.
The sermons, on what is called Pulpit Freedom Sunday, essentially represent a form of biblical bait, an effort by some churches to goad the Internal Revenue Service into court battles over the divide between religion and politics.
The Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit legal defense group whose founders include James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, sponsors the annual event, which started with 33 pastors in 2008. This year, Glenn Beck has been promoting it, calling for 1,000 religious leaders to sign on and generating additional interest at the beginning of a presidential election cycle.
There should be no government intrusion in the pulpit, said the Rev. James Garlow, senior pastor at Skyline Church in La Mesa, Calif., who led preachers in the battle to pass Californias Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. The freedom of speech and the freedom of religion promised under the First Amendment means pastors have full authority to say what they want to say.
NYT: Pastors try to pick a tax fight with IRS - politics - The New York Times - msnbc.com