Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Anti-gay pastors in civil disobedience protest
09.29.2008 8:58am EDT
(West Bend, Wisconsin) Pastor Luke Emrich prepared his sermon this week knowing his remarks could invite an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. But that was the whole point, so Emrich forged ahead with his message: Thou shalt vote according to the Scriptures.
“I’m telling you straight up, I would choose life,” Emrich told about 100 worshippers Sunday at New Life Church, a nondenominational evangelical congregation about 40 miles from Milwaukee.“I would cast a vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin,” he said. “But friends, it’s your choice to make, it’s not my choice. I won’t be in the voting booth with you.”
All told, 33 pastors in 22 states were to make pointed recommendations about political candidates Sunday, an effort orchestrated by the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund.
The conservative legal group plans to send copies of the pastors’ sermons to the IRS with hope of setting off a legal fight and abolishing restrictions on church involvement in politics. Critics call it unnecessary, divisive and unlikely to succeed.
Congress amended the tax code in 1954 to state that certain nonprofit groups, including secular charities and places of worship, can lose their tax-exempt status for intervening in a campaign involving candidates.
Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said hundreds of churches volunteered to take part in “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” Thirty-three were chosen, in part for “strategic criteria related to litigation” Stanley wouldn’t discuss.
Pastor Jody Hice of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Bethlehem, Ga., said in an interview Sunday that his sermon compared Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain on abortion and gay marriage and concluded that McCain “holds more to a biblical world view.”
He said he urged the Southern Baptist congregation to vote for McCain.
“The basic thrust was this was not a matter of endorsing, it’s a First Amendment issue,” Hice said. “To say the church can’t deal with moral and societal issues if it enters into the political arena is just wrong, it’s unconstitutional.”
At the independent Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla., pastor Paul Blair said he told his congregation, “As a Christian and as an American citizen, I will be voting for John McCain.”
“It’s absolutely vital to proclaim the truth and not be afraid to proclaim the truth from our pulpits,” Blair said in an interview.
Because the pastors were speaking in their official capacity as clergy, the sermons are clear violations of IRS rules, said Robert Tuttle, a professor of law and religion at George Washington University. But even if the IRS rises to the bait and a legal fight ensues, Tuttle said there’s “virtually no chance” courts will strike down the prohibition.
“The government is allowed, as long as it has a reasonable basis for doing it, to treat political and nonpolitical speech differently, and that’s essentially what it’s done here,” Tuttle said.
Not all the sermons came off as planned. Bishop Robert Smith Sr. of Word of Outreach Center in Little Rock said he had to postpone until next week because of a missed flight. Smith, a delegate to this month’s Republican National Convention, declined to say whom he would endorse.
Promotional materials for the initiative said each pastor would prepare the sermon with “legal assistance of the ADF to ensure maximum effectiveness in challenging the IRS.”
Stanley said the pastors alone wrote the sermons, with the framework that they be “a biblical evaluation of the candidates for office with a specific recommendation.” That could be a flat-out endorsement or opposition to one or both candidates, he said.
The legal group declined to release a list of participants in advance, citing concerns about potential disruptions at services. A list and excerpts from sermons will be made public early this week, with the delay necessary for lawyers to review the material, the group said.
Under the IRS code, places of worship can distribute voter guides, run nonpartisan voter registration drives and hold forums on issues, among other things. However, they cannot endorse a candidate, and their political activity cannot be biased for or against a candidate, directly or indirectly – a sometimes murky line.
The IRS said in a statement it is aware of Sunday’s initiative and “will monitor the situation and take action as appropriate.”
The agency has stepped up oversight of political activity in churches in recent years after receiving a flurry of complaints from the 2004 campaign. The IRS reported issuing written advisories against 42 churches for improper politically activity in 2004.
The ban on churches intervening in candidate campaigns survived a court challenge when a U.S. appellate court upheld the revocation of tax-exempt status of a New York church that took out a newspaper ad urging Christians to vote against Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential election.
Opposition to Sunday’s sermon initiative was widespread. A United Church of Christ minister in Ohio rallied other religious leaders to file a complaint with the IRS. Roman Catholic Archbishop John Favalora of Miami wrote that the archdiocese abides by IRS rules in part because “we can do a lot for our communities with the money we save by being tax-exempt.”
Three former IRS officials also asked the agency to investigate the initiative, questioning the ethics of lawyers asking ministers to break the law.
Two-thirds of adults oppose political endorsements from churches and other places of worship and 52 percent want them out of politics altogether, according to a survey last month from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
“It is good public policy that in exchange for the valuable privilege of a tax exemption, you cannot turn your church or charity into a political action committee,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Church and State, which intends to report the participating churches to the IRS, along with any other churches acting independently.
All you have to do is substitute the words “lies and hatred and ancient superstitions” where ever they talk about truths, and you shall have the real truth.
And the real truth will set us all free.
And we can fix the federal deficit in a hurry.
To the person who said in Canada that the churches are involved in politics, fortunately for you, you don’t have an American Taliban Christian Republican party. Which is exactly what is wrong with America. And also, the base of that party of ours is composed of those people who still long for slavery and the confederacy, (remember slavery was an economic crime), combined with many of the super-wealthy of America, who worship at the golden calf, the idol of their God named Greed.
It reminds me of the middle oops dark ages, where mankind went nowhere for a thousand years, while corrupt popes and corrupt kings and emperors ravaged the Muslim nations. No wonder they still find it so easy to hate us.
Please count your blessings in your wonderful country of Canada. Lots of us may want to emigrate there.
If you are not WORKING to gain your rights then you are a part of the problem…
This sickens me. I hope you will be willing to read all the way through this… I know it is a long post but I don’t want to be quiet anymore.
I married at 17, (I was a good Latter-day Saint girl), to a return missionary in the Los Angeles Temple in 1974, and promptly had 3 incredible babies. I can speak to this issue.
The Mormon church pays taxes… always has. It’s belief is that doing so keeps the government from having any ability to control the churches functions, businesses (yes it owns a lot of them), and public and private practices.
One of the first principles of Mormon Gospel is FREE AGENCY… the right of an individual to CHOOSE to follow or not follow. They taught this it is why Christ sacrificed himself, to assure that the “plan” (choosing for ones self their own salvation rather than having it forced upon them) would become the example of how His work would further itself… by choice. One of the second principles was the SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
I have long since left the church, as have my children, because of the incredible hypocrisy that exists within its hierarchy.
Classic forest for the trees… While immersed in the church I actively attended and participated. I was proud that the MY church encouraged us to read and study: “seek knowledge and understanding as the glory of God is intelligence”. But the problem is that you read everything with an attitude that distorts the reality. (“Remember that as you read these things it is Satan who has written them to steer you away from right thinking”)
I didn’t see the nasty patriarchal system that not only subjugated women but very skillfully taught them that to even question this was to doubt the existence of the Godhood.
I struggled to rationalize the bigotry, even with the “sins of the mark of Cain“ nonsense. “Man shall be punished for his own transgressions and not for the sins of Adam”… But yes on the sins of Cain? Hmmm
I held on to the several principles (and still do) that I felt truly reflected Christ’s intent; Free Agency. That I (and everyone else) is/am truly a child of God, a perfect creation, it is what we individually do with that that He watches. That we must obey the laws of the land. That Christ was compassionate and his entire life was an example… and that is where I began to fall apart….
When Blacks were given the “right to hold the priesthood” it was done in response to the Civil Rights Mandates and relatively new (1968) anti miscegenation Laws, NOT because of God suddenly calling up Spencer Kimball in 1978 (just 30 years ago!) and telling him that Black men were “now ready” to hold the priesthood. Bigotry and segregationism STILL actively exist and are quietly manipulated in all-white upper-middleclass closed door meetings.
The Mormon church is no better that the catholic church in its dealings with pedophiles or child abusers and wife beaters (I speak from personal experience- I would add here that; “no, Bishop, he won‘t stop if I just pray harder and work on being a better wife and mother in Zion, and yes, Father in Heaven knows my plight and His heart aches for me, but you just covering it up doesn‘t make me heal any faster, but instead gives him permission to do it again.“)
While they teach faith, hope and charity, they deem that there are “those among us” who do not deserve consideration or compassion and are shunned. (The mentally ill are a good example, as are unwed mothers but most specifically women who stand up against a priesthood holder- the absolute worst thing you can do.)
I became further disillusioned when (after living in self loathing denial about my orientation- no, you can’t pray this away either) I decided to choose to exercise my agency and leave my marriage and live as an openly gay woman, mother, grandmother, sister, friend, and daughter. Suddenly, I realized how dark it had been in the forest. I could write volumes on this experience. All these years later I am even more disillusioned by the manipulation of the scriptures and the willingness of the church to abandon free agency for the secondary plan.
I got a call from our eldest daughter, (My wife and I now have 5 children and, soon to be, 14 grandchildren). She told me (quite angrily) that she had gotten a call from some idiot asking her to support Arizona Prop 102. (I instantly felt sorry for the poor guy… I bet his A** is still bleeding! – you’d have to know my daughter) She had figured out that the call came from an individual using a church roster to make these calls because he called her by a name that is only listed on the church records. Using the roster of the membership for political purposes has something that has been grounds for excommunication in the past but is apparently now a protected, even encouraged practice.
If I were still actively paying TEN PERCENT of my income annually, I would be demanding a refund!
I am sickened by the new policy of pulpit politics… it was the last bastion of respect I had for Mormons.
Back in the day, we were told “study the issues, pray on them and cast your vote as you lay out your prayers – secretly, privately, alone with God”.
Somewhere in all of this the bully pulpit builders forgot this;
“As I have loved you, love one another, this new commandment, love one another. By THIS shall men know ye are MY disciples, in that ye have love, one to another”-Christ
I have reread this a thousand times just to make sure that I didn’t miss the exceptions clause… I have never found anyplace where He said not to love someone. He did get angry about the money changers (people making money in the temples/churches) and made it clear that he disliked hypocrisy, (Woe unto the Sadducees and pharoses who stand on the street corners and call out loudly ‘Lord, Lord!’ with their mouths while their hearts are far from Me.”
Am I just disgruntled? No, I am recovering… and I am not alone…
Probably the saddest part of this is how many LGBT people have found themselves hating God via the churches that claim to OWN him.
I am still his child. He owns me. I choose it that way. I do not belong to a church. But there are some wonderful ones out there… ones that get it.
Michael asked, “When was the last time a “Right Wing” religious group flew airplanes into buildings? ”
September 11, 2001
When was the last time a “Right Wing” religious group flew airplanes into buildings? Helloooooo!!!!!Gay Churches are NOTHING but cruising joints & “propaganda” machines for the ‘Gay’ Agenda. As a Gay Man, they offend me. Obama Bin Biden will end all of our gayness problems and befriend radical Muslims, etc…They (Muslims) will ban all religions (Just look @ the UK, by 2025 will be an Islamic Nation!) Remember, there are NO homosexuals in Iran! You need to read Obama’s Book: From The Audacity Of Hope, I WILL STAND WITH THE MUSLIMS SHOULD THE POLITICAL WINDS OF WAR SHIFT IN AN UGLY DIRECTION..
McCain-Palin ‘08!
“They Sow the Wind, and Reap the Whirlwind” – Hosea 8:1-14
It is time to end religious welfare. Not only should religious organizations and their personnel pay their fair share of real estate, income, sales, and all the other taxes, user fees, etc. that everyone else pays but they be charged retro-actively for say 3 to 10 years, depending on their IRS audits. Hell, the back taxes on the the catholics (all that blood money) alone should eliminate the deficit with monies left over to pay for Medicare and Social Secutity into the next century.
What an astounding difference in attitudes, south of the 49th. In Canada, churches have ALWAYS been involved (for better or worse) in political discourse. Over the years, many of our provincial premiers or federal MPs have either been ordained clery, or very active in major churches like the Catholic, Anglican or the United Church of Canada — the largest Protestant denominatiom, and now the loudest proponent of GLBTQ rights. (Didn’t expect it would be the Catholics or Mormons, did you?)
That includes openly GLBTQ ministers and elected officials, of course.
Our churches are registered charities, but they’ve always been expected to speak out on issues of the day like the economy, the capitalist system, public health care coverage, First Nations rights, the environment, tarsands mining, public day care for working moms’s kids, racism, the “war on drugs,” the Middle East wars… anything the Canadian public is debating.
And frankly, that’s exactly the same as in most European democracies, not to forget Australasia. It’s somehow become an American mindset that “separation of church and state” has become another “don’t ask, don’t tell” taboo.
Under our constitution, clergy are perfectly free to say whatever they please. But, if you want to engage in political partisanship, you lose your tax-exempt status. That is not a restriction on speech. It is merely taxing them the same as other political partisan corporations.
To be completely fair, we should not distinguish between a church and any other kind of corporation. Every corporation should have to pay income tax, without regard to what they do to generate the income.
Another reason to implement the Fair Tax. We would not have an issue as far as the taxes and the churches could do as they saw fit.