Posted on 06/22/2017 8:34:17 AM PDT by Morgana
Alliance Defending Freedom joined 47 other signatories to a letter delivered to congressional leaders this week that encourages them to make hearings and votes on the Free Speech Fairness Act a priority.
The bill, introduced by Reps. Steve Scalise, R-La., and Jody Hice, R-Ga., in February, would allow non-profit organizations to speak freely in the ordinary course of their business on all matters of life, including elections and candidates, if they choose to do so. ADF has been actively seeking to end enforcement of the Johnson Amendment against churches through its Pulpit Freedom Sunday effort since 2008.
“Americans don’t need a federal tax agency to be the speech police of churches, which have a constitutionally protected freedom to decide for themselves what they want to say or not say,” said ADF Senior Counsel Erik Stanley. “By removing the threat of an IRS investigation and potential penalties based simply on what a pastor says from the pulpit, this bill brings the law into conformity with the First Amendment. It fixes a restriction enacted in 1954 that was never intended to affect churches but has been used to intimidate them ever since.”
“Not only is it unconstitutional, but the Johnson Amendment has been inconsistently enforced by the IRS, causing many non-profits confusion over how and when they may speak about political issues and candidates…,” the letter explains. “These inconsistencies have had the effect of significantly chilling the freedom to believe and speak that is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.”
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“For the last decade, many churches have participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday and have spoken from the pulpit on political matters,” the letter continues. “They in turn have sent their sermons to the IRS to elicit a response and a court challenge of the Johnson Amendment. The IRS has not investigated these churches, but its guidance has not changed, and churches are left in limbo. In addition, every year, organizations hostile to religious liberty threaten churches with letters promising to report them to the IRS, which has also contributed to the stifling of speech under the Johnson Amendment.”
The Free Speech Fairness Act allows limited political activity that is made in the ordinary course of a 501(c)(3) organization’s regular and customary activities, so long as the organization does not incur more than minimal incremental costs. Thus, this legislation respects free speech without allowing tax-exempt organizations to purchase political ads for or against a candidate for public office.
“The government can’t base any tax exemption on a requirement that a church or any other non-profit organization surrender a constitutionally protected freedom like free speech,” Stanley explained. “We hope that House leaders will consider this fix a priority in light of the Johnson Amendment’s constitutional defects.”
as nice as it sounds, I doubt it’ll make a difference in most churches anyhow.
It’s not illegal to speak out against abortion or homosexuality in church right now. When is the last time you’ve heard a sermon against either of these in any church?
They could they just don’t. It’s called money in the offering plate.
If churches succeed in getting the law changed, it will also apply to Planned Parenthood, anti-gun groups, all the Soros groups, Greenpeace, and all the rest.
Planned Parenthood is a 501c3 and endorsed Clinton for President. Now why can they do that and churches can’t? Hmmmmm.....
Ah, so this is why the Left encouraged James to shoot Scalise. Democrats have been using Churches to campaign for years, specifically Black Churches using the Blacks for their political gains, hoping that no one would dare challenge them. Now every other Church wants the same privilege to be able to do this. Was James paid to do this? That is the real question. Maybe he didn’t act alone
[When is the last time you’ve heard a sermon against either of these in any church?]
They’re out there. You must be attending a lukewarm church.
The absurd notion that the Federal Government, or any of its agencies, can control and adjudicate the speech of a Constitionally protected institution in its normal procedures is itself a uniquely nasty form of tyranny.
incorrect. Religious institutions are a unique protected class of organizations under the Constitution. Greempeace and their ilk are not.
Like many other 501(c)(3) organizations, Planned Parenthood also has a PAC, which they use to officially endorse candidates. Churches could do the same, if they wanted.
The only thing that separates churches from other 501(c)(3) organizations like Greenpeace, etc is churches are automatically considered 501(c)(3) & need not apply for that designation.
Otherwise, all 501(c)(3) groups are basically the same. If you think the religion clause of the First Amendment protects churches in this manner, you are wrong. If you think the free speech clause of the First Amendment protects churches in this manner -wrong again.
Precisely because no one is forced to be a 501(c)(3). With the shekels come the shackles.
Back in my kumbaya days, I was attending a service at All Saints Episcopal in Pasadena when the old adulterer Jesse Jackson hisself paraded down the aisle with the rest of the robed procession and most of congregation swooning like love stuck teens. Being the “ordained minister” he claimed to be, he was able to give his race baiting “sermon” from the pulpit.
I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t get up and leave then. Though it didn’t take long before challenging their leftist theology that I was “invited” (blackballed) to depart their midst.
‘There endeth that lesson.’
My priest doesn’t discuss certain issues due to this. He’s said it. Insanity.
Now that the LGBLTXYZ movement has taken over the churches what difference does it make?
Churches do not need a 501c3 as the states that they incorporate in determine their nonprofit status. The IRS regulations already codify churches as exempt from taxes. All the 501c3 does for churches is allow them to provide a year-end statement to their donors for tax purposes. If the church dropped their 501c3, it would mean their donors would have to keep their own records and provide proof of thei donations. I can’t believe how many churches have fallen for this stupidity as well as the costs involved in getting one.
So repeal the Johnson Amendment and George Soros goes to a compliant synagogue and gives them $500 million to establish a PAC to support candidates and causes he chooses. So what, you may say. He does that anyhow. Ah, but now that $500 million is deductible contribution to a charitable organization.
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