WASHINGTON: Pastors in 22 states participate in "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" -- a protest of the 54-year-old Supreme Court ruling that spelled out the separation of church and state -- by telling parishioners what they expect from their presidential candidates.
Monday, September 29, 2008
The outside of the Word of Outreach Christian Church is seen, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008 in Little Rock, Ark. On Sunday, ministers around the country plan to break the law, endorsing presidential candidates during their sermons despite IRS rules prohibiting such endorsements for tax-exempt non-profits. A minister was scheduled to fly into Little Rock Sunday to endorse a presidential candidate at the Word of Outreach Christian Church, but because of flight delays, did not make it. (AP Photo/Mike Wintroath)
For more than half a century, members of the clergy in the United States have been prevented by federal law from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit. But now, with five weeks to go until Election Day, some clergy are saying the 2008 presidential election is too important to remain publicly impartial, and they are openly breaking the ban.
On Sunday, the Rev. Wiley Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, California, put his congregation at risk of losing its tax-exempt status by endorsing third-party candidate Alan Keyes for president.
"If I've been asked once, I've been asked a dozen or more times, why are you doing what you are doing," said Drake, who was once targeted by the IRS for supporting political candidates from the pulpit.
"Well I'm doing what I'm doing because I'm angry, I'm mad.
He is not alone. Thirty-two other pastors across the country participated over the weekend in a campaign called "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a socially conservative legal consortium based in Arizona.
"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?"
"ADF is not trying to get politics into the pulpit," Stanley continued. "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 tax-exempt status. We need to get the government out of the pulpit."
More information on the campaign can be found at www.telladf.org/church.
But not everyone agrees.
The Interfaith Alliance has launched a nationwide campaign to prevent clergy from endorsing political candidates. So far, nearly 200 members of the clergy have signed a pledge agreeing not to back a candidate on behalf of their house of worship.
"On the day after the election, whoever is in the White House will need a unified nation in order to accomplish his goals and to have the nation fulfill it's responsible role internationally," sad C. Welton Gaddy, president of the alliance, told FOXNews.com.
"Religion historically has been able to bring people together in that kind of unity.If religions in the United States are as divided as politics itself, they will not be able to make one of their greatest contributions to the nation."
The law against politics from the pulpit was introduced in 1954 by then Texas Sen. Lyndon Baines Johnson. Wiley says Johnson introduced the bill to silence his critics and never intended to stop churches from supporting candidates.
"It is time for us to challenge the IRS and to challenge this law that has been interpreted that a pastor cannot personally endorse somebody," Drake said. "That is an interpretation and it is a wrong interpretation, in my opinion."
Gaddy, who is also a pastor of a Baptist church in Louisiana, expressed disappointment in the clergy members who participated in the protest.
"They seem to have ignored completely what politicking would do to compromise the credibility and lessen the integrity of religion," he said."They would seem to place more emphasis on getting a particular candidate elected to office than on preserving the historic ability of religion to reconcile people's differences."
Source: http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/29/pub-pastors-participate-pulpit-freedom-sunday/