From: http://www.family.org/cforum/election/news/a0022562.cfm
October 3, 2002
House Votes to Keep Pastors Muzzled
By Ben Taylor, CitizenLink editor
Pastors and churches were denied their free speech rights on Wednesday, when the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a bill that would have lifted the ban on political speech imposed on the nation's houses of worship.
House members voted 178-239 on the Houses of Worship Political Speech Act (H.R. 2357), which would have removed restrictions on pastors and churches that limit their ability to speak out on the moral and political issues of the day.
Currently, the Internal Revenue Service can revoke the tax-exempt status of any church that engages in partisan political activity.
"What that means in practice is that neither a pastor, nor the church in its official publications, in the way it allows its meetings to go on or anything else, can show any sign of partisanship in an election," said Michael Schwartz, vice president of government relations for Concerned Women for America.
He lamented the vote, but said it provides citizens with valuable information.
"Every one of us now can take a look at our representative in Congress and know whether that representative is in favor of religious liberty, or in favor of threatening pastors with punishment if they speak out," Schwartz said. "I bet a lot of (those voting against the bill) have actually personally campaigned in churches, and isn't that an interesting piece of hypocrisy."
He added: "But whether they have personally campaigned in churches or not, I think we can go to work on changing their minds and helping them understand what the Constitution's really all about.