So, the Pulpit Initiative is not about…
· turning the church into a Political Action Committee
· allowing contributions to candidates
· any particular candidate or political party
· “political” speech
· endorsing or opposing candidates
The Pulpit Initiative is…
· a bold defense of the First Amendment’s Establishment, Free Exercise, and Free Speech clauses
· about protecting core religious expression
· only related to what a pastor says from his pulpit, for example, on a Sunday morning (i.e., not about voter guides, candidate appearances, or other “political” activities)
Certainly, congregations and a church’s leadership can tell pastors they don’t want names of candidates spoken from the pulpit. But that is very different from government censorship. To government regulators, today’s “Gospel” may well be words that are tomorrow’s “politics.” ADF has already defended Americans in many cases where publicly preaching words straight from the Gospel has led to censorship…and even jail. The bottom line is that no enforcement agency of the federal government should be telling a pastor what he can or cannot say from his pulpit about the Bible and his church’s teaching on the issues of the hour – even if the pastor’s sermon applies Scripture and church teaching to candidates and elections. Such agencies certainly cannot condition tax-exempt status–a status churches have always been constitutionally guaranteed since our founding–on the surrender of cherished First Amendment rights. In fact, for 166 years, churches freely preached directly on political candidates’ qualifications for office. That was no problem when the Constitution was signed, or when the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue was appointed in 1862, or when the federal income tax was authorized by the 16th Amendment in 1913. Nor were churches transformed into political machines. When the IRS code was amended in 1954 to ban “intervention” in political campaigns, it was an act of political retaliation by then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson against two anti-communist groups. It had nothing to do with “church politicking,” and scholars agree that churches were not the target of the regulation. ADF has the U.S. Constitution and the weight of American history on its side. Those who oppose the Pulpit Initiative have yet to make one constitutionally-derived argument against it. It is ironic that they laud the “separation of church and state” in opposition to the Pulpit Initiative, but by opposing the initiative, are asking for continued government control and censorship of a pastor’s sermon.The pulpit is no place for government regulators.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2008/09/pulpit_initiative_about_freedo.html
Pastors do not have to break the law. They can merely live by faith in God to provide and now discontinue from giving out tax receipts on all donations and thus be free to speak as any ordinary citizen can. The Bible does not prohibit them from doing this now as well like Rev George Mueller did too.
Clergy and Religious Institutions Not Above the Law
Houston Chronicle, United States – 1 hour ago Most of the time when people forward “funny” things to me by email they go straight to the junk mail folder and I ask the sender (very nicely) to please … |
Beware the bully pulpit
Los Angeles Times, CA – Pastors plan to challenge a ban on religious leaders making political endorsements in church. It’s a bad idea. Every act of civil disobedience is, … |
Pastors walk a fine line when preaching on politics
Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX – By DARREN BARBEE About a month ago, a video of John McCain and Barack Obama filled the huge screens hanging inside High Point Church in Arlington. … |
I’m Your Pastor, and I Approved This Ad
New York Times, United States – Call it an act of faith or call it a political ploy, but 33 ministers plan to endorse a presidential candidate from their Sunday pulpits in defiance of … |
Pastor to endorse candidate
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI – By ANNYSA JOHNSON A West Bend pastor is among more than 30 across the country who plan to endorse a presidential candidate from the pulpit Sunday in a … |
Don’t preach your politics on me
Boston Globe, United States – By Alex Beam In February, I drove out to Pasadena, Calif., to visit All Saints, a large Episcopal church not far from Colorado Boulevard. … |
Pastors Plan Pulpit Political Sermons to Defy IRS
KARK, Little Rock – Churchgoers in 22 states may hear a sermon unlike anything they’re accustomed to this Sunday. The “Los Angeles Times” reports Christian ministers will use …
Amen…
We just finished studying the book of Revelation in our church and the timing is only too perfect for having sharp eyes to see how gloriously the world hates Christ and Christianity. There is a measure of absolute frustration and righteous anger upon realizing how far this country has fallen from the standard, but then again the Lord promises that these things will happen. We certainly cannot stop it. I appreciate this article an the importance of empowering the church to stand up for the rights that are dissolving before our eyes. Keep up the good writing.
http://freshmanpastor.wordpress.com/
The Lord also promises that no weapon formed against us will prosper, and greater is he within us, the spirit of Christ than he that is in the world, the devil.. I read the last Chapter of all of the Books and it still says we won through Jesus Christ our Lord, we are undefeated. We walk by faith and not by sight