Posted on 07/31/2014 6:16:51 PM PDT by jazusamo
First Amendment: Government's assault on religious liberty has hit a new low as the IRS settles with atheists by promising to monitor sermons for mentions of the right to life and traditional marriage.
A lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) asserted that the Internal Revenue Service ignored complaints about churches' violating their tax-exempt status by routinely promoting political issues, legislation and candidates from the pulpit.
The FFRF has temporarily withdrawn its suit in return for the IRS's agreement to monitor sermons and homilies for proscribed speech that the foundation believes includes things like condemnation of gay marriage and criticism of ObamaCare for its contraceptive mandate.
The irony of this agreement is that it's being enforced by the same Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division of the IRS that was once headed by Lois "Fifth Amendment" Lerner and that openly targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups.
Among the questions that the IRS asked of those targeted groups was the content of their prayers.
Those who objected to the monitoring of what is said and done in mosques for signs of terrorist activity have no problem with this one, though monitoring what's said in houses of worship is a clear violation of the First Amendment. Can you say "chilling effect"?
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Can we get the IDF to “fix” the IRS?
Churches should pat the tax and immediately speak loudly against the persecution of speech through taxation and all other federal offenses against God.
What's to stop the atheists from lodging phony complaints ad-nauseum?
C'mon, even a third grader can see the problems with this "monitoring."
Xsarc/off
Conservatives need to complain every time an African American politician shows up at an African American church and starts breaking wind.
Bet they won’t be monitoring any “liberation theology” churches for political activity.
OK, who is assigned to the Mosques?
ditto
A good reason why all Christians should be armed, and I’m not talking about a revolver in the night stand.
So does that mean that politicians can’t give political speeches from the pulpits of black churches anymore?
The govt. will do anything to get atheists into Church. /sarc
So we are going to have our houses of worship desecrated by the presence of spies? Our clergy cannot preach according to their sense of duty and conscience? I know Russian Orthodox Christians who grew up in the USSR. Maybe they can advise Americans on how to deal with this.
Ridiculous, meaning the IRS and atheists.
Communists sticking together
So...I’m confused.
Will it be atheists clandestinely occupying pew space while monitoring preachers’ sermons for politically incorrect content, or actual IRS agents?
Informants’ snitching tends to be less accurate than that of paid agents with a chain of command to satisfy.
Tidbit: informants in the old East Germany were compromised citizens out to save their own hides. Informants in the Third Reich were eager volunteers out for booty.
In either case, the ratio was about five snitches per government agent.
churches are tax exempt and always have been, they predate such taxes, and they are free to discuss social matters of the day, inculding political ones. pastors can also personally state their own opinions on candidates as long as they preface it by saying so. churches can also hand out voters guides.
liberty counsel has excellent tools and information concerning this.
Let’s say we start with Obama’s Chicago church and Reverend Wright.
The pastor at my church regularly speaks out about the right to life and traditional marriage.
How would this concern the IRS?
I like it but the IRS would definitely not.
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