[Doctor Stochastic]

The Republicans had a majority of both the Senate and the House as well as the Presidency in 1954. These changes may be due to LBJ, but they were approved by the GOP and signed by Eisenhower.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Maybe they, like the Republican-controlled House that just shot that bill down, figured that theocracies wouldn't work any better here in the USA than they have in places like Iran or Afghanistan.

Regardless, though, if there's a double standard in terms of how this gag order is applied to LIBERAL churches, then we need to raise Caine with the IRS for not enforcing the law objectively. Fortunately President Bush's homeland security initiative is making it easier to fire parasitic bureaucrats across the entire federal government.

Jerry Falwell firmly believes that Jesse Jackson has been allowed to behave politically in churches in ways that conservatives could never get away with doing. Now that this bill has been defeated even in a Republican-controlled House, isn't it time to move on to plan B: better enforcement of the existing rule so that Liberals can no longer get away with illegal mischief while still claiming tax-exempt status?

[Askel5]

The Republicans had a majority of both the Senate and the House as well as the Presidency in 1954. These changes may be due to LBJ, but they were approved by the GOP and signed by Eisenhower.

And it's Catholics who were the primary thorn in the side of the pols ... particularly those champing at the bit to "educate" the nation about Environmental issues and population control once their trials of exterminating black and Puerto Ricans had proven successful.

[aristeides]

The Congress of 1954 passed a new Internal Revenue Code which was substantially different from its predecessor. It was called the "Internal Revenue Code of 1954" at least until the time of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. This provision may have been the price of LBJ's support for that Code.

What makes the provision on tax exemption particularly objectionable is that it isn't enforced impartially. Black churches have long been blatantly political. The NAACP has now dropped any pretense of nonpartisanship. If the provision isn't going to be applied to some organizations for partisan reasons, it's unfair to retain the provision in the law.