“Churches and clergy are ALWAYS permitted (”permitted”!) to talk about issues.”
Permitted? By who?
You don't need "permission," to exercise your God-given right to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion. The Constitution can acknowledge these rights, the Constitution can protect them; but the Constitution can neither "permit" nor refuse to "permit" them.
That amendment (the first) begins with the five most beautiful words in the Engligh language: "Congress shall make no law..."