With next week's American 2012 elections upon us, I thought I would take the opportunity to share
with you an exciting and very important program that allows for the protection of free speech
for our pastors in the pulpit. The Christian organization The
Alliance Defense Fund (http://www.alliancedefensefund.org) has pioneered this effort. The following article is an overview of this wonderful effort.
Please join me in passing along this important information to your pastors & friends. Together we can make a positive difference!
The Pulpit Initiative
In 2008, Alliance
Defense Fund (ADF) launched the Pulpit
Initiative, which is designed to restore the right of pastors to speak
freely from the pulpit on any and all issues addressed by Scripture.
"And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" - Romans 10:14-15
Historically, churches have emphatically, and with great passion,
spoken Scriptural truth from the pulpit about government and culture.
Historians have stated that America owes its independence in great degree to the moral force
of the pulpit. Pastors have proclaimed Scriptural truth throughout history on
great moral issues such as slavery, women’s suffrage, child labor and
prostitution. Pastors have also spoken from the pulpit with great frequency for
and against various candidates for government office.
All that changed in 1954 with the passage of the "Johnson
amendment" which restricted the right of churches and pastors to speak
Scriptural truth about candidates for office. The Johnson amendment was
proposed by then-Senator Lyndon Johnson, and it changed the Internal Revenue
Code to prohibit churches and other non-profit organizations from supporting or
opposing a candidate for office. After the Johnson amendment passed, churches
faced a choice of either continuing their tradition of speaking out or
silencing themselves in order to retain their church’s tax exemption. The
Internal Revenue Service, in conjunction with radical organizations like the
American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and
State and others have used the Johnson amendment to create an atmosphere of
intimidation and fear for any church that dares to speak Scriptural truth about
candidates for office or issues.
It is time for the intimidation and threats to end. Churches and
pastors have a constitutional right to speak freely and truthfully from the
pulpit – even on candidates and voting – without fearing loss of their tax
exemption. Pastors and church leaders all over America are finding renewed courage to stand for the truth of the
Gospel in their community, are standing for their constitutionally protected
rights and, with the help of ADF, are successfully warding off government
intrusions and intimidation.
The following is the Executive Summary of the Pulpit Initiative as
outlined by the Alliance Defense Fund:
In 1954, the U.S. Congress amended (without debate or analysis)
Internal Revenue Code §501(c)(3) to restrict the speech of non-profit tax exempt
entities, including churches. Before the amendment was passed, there were no
restrictions on what churches could or couldn’t do with regard to speech about
government and voting, excepting only a 1934 law preventing non-profits from
using a substantial part of their resources to lobby for legislation.
The 1954 amendment, offered by then-Senator Lyndon Johnson, stated
that non-profit tax-exempt entities could not “participate in, or intervene in
(including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political
campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.”
Since the amendment passed, the IRS has steadfastly maintained that any speech
by churches about candidates for government office, including sermons from the
pulpit, can result in loss of tax exemption.
Historically, churches had frequently and fervently spoken for and
against candidates for government office. Such sermons date from the founding
of America, including sermons against Thomas Jefferson for being a deist;
sermons opposing William Howard Taft as a Unitarian; and sermons opposing Al
Smith in the 1928 presidential election. Churches have also been at the
forefront of most of the significant societal and governmental changes in our
history including ending segregation and child labor and advancing civil
rights.
After the amendment, churches faced a choice of speaking freely on
any and all issues addressed by Scripture and potentially risking their tax
exemption, or remaining silent and protecting their tax exemption.
Unfortunately, many churches have allowed the 1954 Johnson amendment to
effectively silence their speech, even from the pulpit. Ironically, after 50
years of strict interpretation by the IRS, there is no reported situation to
date where a church has lost its tax exempt status or been directly
punished for sermons delivered from the pulpit. Nonetheless, the law
remains unchanged. Thus, many churches accept the IRS interpretation of the
Code and become silent.
ADF believes that the Johnson amendment is unconstitutional in
restricting the expression of sermons delivered from the pulpits of churches.
This initiative is designed to return freedom to the pulpit by allowing pastors
to speak out on the profound and important issues of the day.
There are many reasons why the 1954 Johnson amendment violates the
Constitution. Here are some of the key reasons why the amendment is
unconstitutional:
- The amendment violates the Establishment Clause by requiring the government to excessively and pervasively monitor the speech of churches to ensure they are not transgressing the restriction in the amendment. The amendment allows the government to determine when truly religious speech becomes impermissibly “political.” The government has no business making such decisions.
- The amendment violates the Free Speech Clause because it requires the government to discriminate against speech based solely on the content of the speech. In other words, some speech is allowed, but other speech is not. The Supreme Court has invalidated this type of speech discrimination for decades.
- The amendment also violates the Free Speech Clause by conditioning the receipt of a tax exemption on refraining from certain speech. Put simply, if a church wants the tax exemption, they cannot speak on any and all issues addressed by Scripture. This is an unconstitutional condition on free speech.
- The amendment violates the Free Exercise Clause because it substantially burdens a church’s exercise of religion. The government does not have a compelling reason to burden religion in this way.
Churches have too long feared the loss of tax exempt status.
Rather than risk confrontation, pastors have self-censored their speech,
ignoring blatant immorality in government and foregoing the opportunities to
praise moral government leaders. Pastors who long to be relevant to society, to
preach the Gospel in a way that has meaning in modern America, often studiously ignore much that goes on in politics
lest they draw attention of the IRS.
ADF believes that the IRS restriction on religious expression from
the pulpit is unconstitutional. After 50 years of threats and intimidation,
churches should reclaim the expressive rights guaranteed to them in the United
States Constitution.
*ADF
does not endorse or oppose political parties or candidates, nor does it urge
allegiance to any political party or candidate. ADF does believe that
churches and pastors have the freedom to plainly speak Scriptural truth
about the qualifications of candidates for public office regardless of the
candidate’s political affiliation.
*IRS
CIRCULAR 230 DISCLOSURE: Any tax advice contained in this communication was not
written for the purpose of and is not intended to be used for the purpose of
(i) avoiding penalties imposed by the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting,
marketing, or recommending any transaction or matter addressed herein.
The Pulpit
Initiative: What it is and is not
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 about...
- 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)
The purpose of the Pulpit Initiative is to restore the right of
pastors to speak freely from the pulpit without fear of punishment by the
government for doing what churches do: speak on any number of cultural and
societal issues from a biblical perspective. The purpose of the ADF Pulpit
Initiative is not – as some have intentionally tried to confuse the issue –
about whether pastors should or should not “endorse” candidates. The issue with
which ADF is concerned is over who regulates what may be said from the
pulpit.
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.
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.
If you have been blessed by this message or have a specific question, prayer request or testimony, please send me a note to: encouragingconcepts@live.com
I love hearing from you. Keep reading Encouraging Concepts!
Blessings!
Shane K. Morin <><
Encouraging Concepts
Truth for Today
"Living Life From a Biblical Worldview"
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"Dedicated to the Never Ending Search for the Creator's calling within You" (TM)
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