Pulpit Freedom Sunday
http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4690
ALLIANCE DEFENSE FUND NEWS RELEASE
September 25, 2008 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT ADF MEDIA RELATIONS: (480) 444-0020 or www.telladf.org/pressroom
Pulpit Freedom Sunday
Participating pastors will exercise First Amendment right to speak on positions of electoral candidates Sept. 28
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Pastors participating in the Alliance Defense Fund’s “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” will preach from their pulpits Sept. 28 about the moral qualifications of candidates seeking political office. The pastors will exercise their First Amendment right to preach on the subject, despite federal tax regulations that prohibit intervening or participating in a political campaign.
“Pastors have a right to speak about Biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment. No one should be able to use the government to intimidate pastors into giving up their constitutional rights,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley. “If you have a concern about pastors speaking about electoral candidates from the pulpit, ask yourself this: should the church decide that question, or should the IRS?”
Pulpit Freedom Sunday is an event associated with the ADF Pulpit Initiative (www.telladf.org/church), a legal effort designed to secure the First Amendment rights of pastors in the pulpit. A document explaining what the Pulpit Initiative is and is not is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/WhatIsPI.pdf.
“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’s tax-exempt status. We need to get the government out of the pulpit,” said Stanley.
Stanley explained that, contrary to the misunderstandings of many, tax-exempt status is not a “gift” or “subsidy” bestowed by the government.
“Churches were completely free to preach about candidates from the day that the Constitution was ratified in 1788 until 1954. That’s when the unconstitutional rule known as the ‘Johnson Amendment’ was enacted,” explained Stanley. “Churches are exempt from taxation under the principle that there is no surer way to destroy religion than to begin taxing it. As the U.S. Supreme Court has noted, the power to tax involves the power to destroy. The real effect of the Johnson Amendment is that pastors are muzzled for fear of investigation by the IRS.”
After Sept. 28, ADF plans to provide via news release a list of pastors who participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
7 Comments
Do you have any pastors committed to participate in the Pulpit Freedom Sunday? If so, can you let me know who. I am a law student that is very interested in separation of church/state issues. I would like to follow this for a potential law review article.
At this point in time, ADF has not released names.
why have you not released names? When will you? Can you speak in general terms as to how many participants are endorsing McCain and how many Obama?
This makes it difficult to find a church that will participate… I am keen to hear one of these sermons this Sunday. I am visiting in the Rochester, NY area and they seem to be mostly left-leaning churches here. I don’t know many people here and was hoping for some help at this site.
A report in Christianity Today indicates
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/septemberweb-only/139-41.0.html:
The Alliance Defense Fund announced the initiative last May as a way to challenge IRS rules that date to 1954. ADF spokesman Greg Scott said the organization contacted “pastors, priests and rabbis from every major denomination,” and knows of 33 clergy in 23 states who intend to take part on Sunday.
Has the ADF released the names yet? It’s said that it will be done ‘after Sept 28′… How long ‘after’ … after all, next week is still ‘after’ as well.
Finally their are Pastors who have the gall to stand up!!!!!I want to know if their are Pasters in my region with ‘like-mind’ so that I could attend their church.
pls/adv
One Trackback
[...] this week, ADF senior lawyer Erik Stanley said this: Pastors have a right to speak about Biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment. No [...]