The third LA Times installment in the ongoing discussion of ADF’s Pulpit Initiative between ADF attorney Erik Stanley and Barry Lynn of Americans United for Church and State is now online. It poses this question:
Today’s question: At what point does a minister cross a line between merely sharing private views and involving a church in a political campaign, thereby inviting IRS scrutiny? Previously, Lynn and Stanley debated whether churches should receive tax exemptions at all and if federal tax law muzzles free speech from the pulpit.
Barry Lynn:
There is no question, Erik, that when a person becomes a minister, rabbi, priest or other religious leader, he or she does not lose the capacity to participate in partisan political activities. However, any activity in support of or in opposition to candidates for public office must be done in a manner that doesn’t indicate or imply that the religious figure is bringing the weight of a religious institution behind him. It also means that that church leader cannot utilize the resources of the church to promote his personal partisan views . . .
Erik Stanley:
Barry, you’re willing to let a pastor be a pastor anywhere and everywhere during election season — except in his pulpit. By your standard, a pastor clad in clerical garb could stand before the church and proclaim, “I am speaking only for myself, and I oppose Sen. Joe Smith for president.” Yet the same pastor cannot walk into the pulpit, open the Bible, and preach a thorough, biblical sermon about how candidate Smith violated moral principles when he enacted legislation leading to a financial debacle on Wall Street. Remarkable.
That is where your fundamental misunderstanding comes into play. The Pulpit Initiative is designed to allow a pastor to be a pastor — free of government censorship or control and free of fear that if he somehow says something wrong, he will be derided in the media by your organization and even face a visit by the IRS . . .
