ADF attorney Erik Stanley has this commentary in the Montgomery Advertiser. He writes:
With all of the discussion swirling about whether church leaders can speak freely about electoral candidates from the pulpit, one question frequently comes to the fore: If a church wants to talk about the positions of electoral candidates, it can just give up the “gift” of tax-exempt status “bestowed” by the government. That would be simple enough — if it wasn’t so completely wrong.
That’s because churches receive a tax exemption as a matter of constitutional right, not legislative grace. The U.S. Supreme Court stated decades ago that the power to tax involves the power to destroy, and no surer way to destroy the free exercise of religion exists than to tax it out of existence.
J. Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty has an opposing commentary in the same paper titled: Pulpits are Already Free.
Related:
Click the ADF Pulpit Inititative tag below
ADF website information: ADF Pulpit Initiative
