Religion
Related: About this forum‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday’ Pastors Don’t Care About Religious Freedom
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/07/pulpit-freedom-sunday-pastors-don-t-care-about-religious-freedom.htmlA thousand Christian ministers plan to defy the law by endorsing candidates in their sermons. But theyre protesting an imaginary problem and ignoring the real challenges to others freedom of
David Sessions
Oct 7, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
On Oct. 7, approximately one thousand evangelical pastors will urge their congregations to vote, not just for Christian values or life or family, but for for, as Stephen Colbert put it, Mitt Romneyor not Obama. Boosted by dutiful Fox News coverage and an always-zeitgeisty endorsement from Mike Huckabee, the fifth annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday will culminate in copies of hundreds of illegal sermons being mailed to the IRS to challenge its restriction on tax-exempt organizations endorsing political candidates. According to the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian-right group behind the protest, the future of religious freedom depends on your pastor being allowed to tell you how to vote.
The pastors have a point about the law. The restriction on electioneering by tax-exempt organizations came in the Johnson Amendment passed in 1954, and originally had nothing to do with religion. The amendment has a curious backstory involving McCarthyism and hardball Texas politics. It was a product of then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnsons battle with Sen. Joe McCarthy, who was leading a national witch-hunt for communists. Johnson feared that the right-wing groups in Texas circulating articles in favor of his opponent, Dudley Dougherty, would cost him reelection. On the day one of the special House committees investigating tax-exempt organizations concluded its work, Johnson presented an amendment to revise the tax code and quietly disarm his opponents. Only later would it become clear that churches would be collateral damage.
The Johnson Amendment is a relic of a strange, particular period of American politics, not a sacred expression of our Constitution or secular values. In fact, its difficult to make a case that it should stay on the books. There remains no persuasive explanation of how anything would change if tax-exempt, indisputably partisan organizations like the National Right to Life or the National Rifle Association explicitly endorsed candidates. Does anyone have any doubt whatsoever which presidential candidate those organizations support? (Seriously, just try going to one of their websites and see if you can possibly avoid figuring it out.) The same goes for churches: if a pastor preaches against the evils of same-sex marriage and abortion and urges his congregation to vote, what difference does it make if he names Mitt Romney?
The pointlessness of the Johnson Amendment does not, however, make Pulpit Freedom Sunday a righteous cause. Contrary to the ADFs apocalyptic rhetoric, the electioneering restriction does approximately zero harm to religious freedom. In fact, it might as well not exist: in the five years since Pulpit Freedom Sunday began, the IRS has been essentially saying, We dont give a damn what you say in your sermon. The agency has ignored the protest, and its officials have consistently downplayed its interest in prosecuting churches for illegal campaigning. The IRSs internal bar for beginning an electioneering-related audited is extraordinarily high. Ironically, IRS action against electioneering churches has been so nonexistent that the Pulpit Freedom pastors are complaining about how little the agency enforces the law. Its frustrating, an ADF lawyer told The New York Times in 2011. The law is on the books but they dont enforce it.
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peacebird
(14,195 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)No one will go to jail.
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Nothing should happen to me??
cbayer
(146,218 posts)But jail time will not be a part of it.
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)It isn't even unconstitutional, AFAIK.
It can be enforced by a simple executive order to enforce it. Unfortunately, that would be a very bad thing for any president to do in this very religious country. I suspect that's why this will continue to happen.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I think they should enforce it or rescind it.
longship
(40,416 posts)I think that it is fairly enforced for all non-profits except for religious charities. I believe that religious sensitivities prevent the IRS from enforcing the regulations for churches. AFAIK, there is a law on the books requiring an upper level IRS enforcer to enforce the rules. Churches are banking on this rule for lack of enforcement.
Maybe somebody who's more knowledgable, or with some bandwidth, can flesh this out. But, AFAIK, there is a reason why religion has a special consideration.
Just putting this out for consideration.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)That would be even more problematic. If there is not equal enforcement, that's a big problem.
I'm not sure that enforcement is politically unwise right now. These churches are composed mostly of fundamentalists and they are going to vote R anyway.
So why wouldn't Obama tell the IRS to at least send a warning to them?