Posted on 08/10/2016 9:12:53 AM PDT by PROCON
It is illegal for clergy to support or oppose political candidates from the pulpit. Houses of worship can host candidate forums and voter-registration drives; pastors and rabbis and imams can even bend the rules a little to advocate “as individuals” at conventions or other events. But for more than 60 years, religious groups have been forbidden from electioneering.
Apparently, a lot of pastors don’t pay attention to this rule. According to a new survey from Pew Research Center, roughly 9 percent of people who have attended religious services in the last few months have heard clergy speak out in favor of a political candidate, and roughly 11 percent have heard clergy speak in opposition. What’s remarkable, though, is how much this is apparently happening at one particular kind of church: those run by black Protestants.
Fully 28 percent of those who have attended black Protestant churches in the last few months heard their pastor support Hillary Clinton.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Which in itself is total bullshit.
Correct. It is perfectly legal. The church may get it's 501c3 tax exemption pulled by the IRS, but it is legal. Having the tax exemption pulled might be very painful for churches financially, but it is a one-time only punishment. The church is then free to advocate for candidates and issues as they see fit.
“Black Pastors Are Breaking the Law to Get Hillary Clinton Elected”
What? Like this is something NEW?
With regard to speech from the pulpit no court has ever upheld this because the IRS has never been willing to test this blatantly unconstitutional provision in Court.
Trust, me, the Unitarians are doing this too. They are just smarter and know how to be careful and keep it under wraps.
I remember a Congressional race during my time as a state board member of New York YAF. The local Catholic archdiocese really wanted to put out a letter criticizing one of the candidates on life issues. (The secretary of my chapter was Catholic.) We went to them and found a way to get the letter out without either the archdiocese or YAF being directly involved in doing so.
There are all sorts of back doors if you choose to use them, without directly violating the rule.
The real problem is 501(c)(3) status. it enables the government to set rules for your operation.
501c3 status does not grant churches tax-exempt status. Tax exempt status is granted by the Constitution. Anyone can register a non-profit organization for almost any purpose without submitting to 501c3 registration. The only requirement is that all monies be used for the pursuit of the stated purpose of the organization.
What 501c3 does is grant is a liability limitations to the organizers at the cost of expressly placing themselves under the regulatory and reporting requirements. It shields church officials from being held personally liable for church actions.
In other words, the IRS says, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
And the church leaders say yes.
Just the very notion that we have a tax code that punishes free speech, especially free speech of RELIGION tells you all you need to know about how pathetic things are.
The IRS should be abolished and those that work for them thrown in jail for crimes committed against the American people. They are complicit!
Yea, the last 8 years, black churches have been Obama political rallies every Sunday.
Indeed. They do it for every democrat locally and nationally.
The pastors have the right idea, just the wrong canidate. if they don`t know any more about the Bible than they do politics they need to let some one else do the preaching.
I don’t download much - can you tell me what I would find?
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