Posted on 12/05/2005 8:09:23 AM PST by FeeinTennessee
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Monday, Dec. 5, 2005 10:30 a.m. EST House Eyes IRS Rules on Religious Speech
Support is building in the House of Representatives to lift IRS restrictions banning political speech from the pulpit.
The Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, also known as HR 235, would give clergy the freedom to discuss politics with their congregations without putting their church's tax exempt status in jeopardy.
Rep. Walter B. Jones, who sponsored the measure, has picked up 165 co-sponsors for his legislation, with House Speaker Denny Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay said to be sympathetic.
Under the new formulation, clergy would be free to speak out on political issues during worship services - but prohibited from any direct participation in campaign activities.
Up till now, however, support from Democrats has been slim to none.
But that may change with the IRS investigation - announced just last month - into the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., one of the largest liberal congregations in the nation.
The IRS says that two days before the 2004 presidential election, All Saints Rev. George Regas Regas ran afoul of tax law when he used his pulpit to delivered a blistering attack on President Bush and the Iraq war.
While insisting he wasn't instructing anyone on how to vote, according to Gannett News - Regas implored his flock: "Jesus places on your heart this question. When you go to the polls this November, will you vote all your values?"
Reacting to the IRS investigation into All Saints, Robert Edger, general secretary of the left wing National Council of Churches, complained that the church is being targeted by "a political witch hunt."
And while traditional left-wing advocacy groups like People for the American Way and Americans United for Separation of Church and State remain opposed to Rep. Jones' measure, the All Saints case is making for some strange political bedfellows.
The Los Angeles Times reports that when Ted Haggard, head of the 30-million-member National Association of Evangelicals, heard about the All Saints case, he reached out to the National Council - telling them that while probably would not agree with much in Rev. Regas' election eve sermon, he wants to work together to do "whatever it takes to get the IRS to stop" such actions.
A liberal Episcopal church? Nah.
Imagine if ministers and priests were able to allowed to tell people what's right and wrong in the political arena! It would destroy our society, because ..... ummm .....
Ugh. Not this again.
Houses of worship incorporated as non-profits are already free to speak on political matters. What they can't do is endorse candidates or engage in more than minimal lobbying.
If they want to endorse candidates, etc they can simply give up their non-profit status. No one forces them to be non profit organizations.
These regulations are the same for all 501(c)(3) non-profits - from Planned Parenthood to the NRA.
Even if this law is passed, I don't think much will change in white evangelical churches. Most pastors are afraid of possibly offending some of the Libs in their congregation and so they still won't speak up explicitly for Biblical values. It will be the Lib pastors, whose politics are their true religion, who will take the most advantage of this. Even though I think this will be the result, I still think that pastors should not be artificially muzzled.
Hillary will soon be sitting in the front row of every church imaginable.
Hillary will soon be sitting in the front row of every church imaginable.
Hopefully to see the error of her ways.
Some of you aren't seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in this. It's surely a good measure. Lately, churches have been coming under fire (they shouldn't be anyway) and if this is passed, it will totally get the IRS out of the way.
How sad.
It really works wonders when the IRS enforces the law against libs as well as conservatives. Under Clinton the IRS persecuted every conservative Christian group it could lay its paws on. Now that the shoe's on the other foot, everybody's getting the idea that the law needs to be changed, just like what happened with the Special Counsel law. This shows the way to get rid of CFR is to enforce it vigorously against the DemonRats who supported it.
"When you go to the polls this November, will you vote all your values?" "
Keyword: "all".
Last year, left wing liberals voted for a notorious liar!
I think this is a ploy to keep Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton from being indicted for using tax exempt church funds for political purposes.
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