Oct

1

Politics From the Pulpit

Filed Under Free Speech, religion | Comments

Over the weekend a group of 33 Pastors from 22 states came together to do something that has been against federal law for nearly half a century, they were going to endorse candidates for president. The campaign was called “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” and was organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group based in Arizona.

In a statement, Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for ADF said:

ADF is not trying to get politics into the pulpit. Churches can decide for themselves that they either do or don’t want their pastors to speak about electoral candidates. The point of the Pulpit Initiative is very simple: The IRS should not be the one making the decision by threatening to revoke a church tax-exempt status. We need to get the government out of the pulpit.

The original law was introduced by Lyndon Johnson in 1954, and it prevents Pastors from endorsing candidates while in their official capacity as clergy. Should they choose to endorse a candidate they can lose their tax-exempt status. All of the pastors who took part have sent their speeches to the IRS in hopes of sparking a legal fight over the law.

All of these pastors examined the candidates on the basis of moral qualities, usually in regards to the stance on Abortion and gay rights. In a time when we are fighting two wars, and in one of the worse economic disasters in the country’s history, is a candidate’s stance on two seemingly small issues all that important in hindsight?

All this campaign is doing is bringing the obvious out of the closet. Given the values of the church and the relatively minimal changes in party stances over the last decade or so, its not hard to determine what candidate is the “more morally right” candidate.

Mass is suppose to be a time to pray and reflect on what you’ve done and what you can do to improve yourself. Its not a time for politics. Its a time for healing. Keep the politics for another time and place.

An interview with one of the pastors

The Website of the campaign can be found here. It includes a video and mp3 radio ads

Pro-Life groups have already filed complaints with the IRS over the campaign.