Free Republic

The Rev. Barry Lynn, a national advocate of abortion and the separation of church and state, is retiring this week. Lynn is best known as the leader of the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a position he has held since 1992, the Washington Post reports. A United Church of Christ pastor and a lawyer, Lynn has been a vocal opponent of the Little Sisters of the Poor and Christian-owned businesses like Hobby Lobby that do not think the government should force them to pay for drugs that may cause abortions in their employee health plans. Despite...

Religous conservatives aren't going quietly into the night, Americans United's Barry Lynn tells Salon.Because non-politicians like Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson have garnered the most attention during the GOP presidential primary thus far, another distinctive feature of this cycle’s batch of candidates has gone relatively unnoticed. For all the talk and hype about the GOP modernizing and learning the lessons of the George W. Bush era — and for all the breathless speculation about the millennial generation and how it demands of politicians a different approach — the religious right’s presence within the party remains formidable. The aforementioned...

It sometimes seems that everyone ever audited by the IRS – or even asked questions about a return – is claiming ideological harassment. Franklin Graham has decided that he too is a victim of IRS overreach. I think he’s a victim of something else: His lust for the media spotlight and his disgust with President Obama. The son of famous evangelist Billy Graham has written a letter to Obama carping because ministries founded by this father, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse (a group that has received millions in tax dollars), had been asked questions about political activity...

Americans United for Separation of Church and State evidently sent copies of this letter to 60,000 pastors recently. It’s important to remember that Americans United is not an official agency of any governmental entity. This letter has no force of law and is just their opinion. Our local AU affiliate here in Oklahoma has sent similar letters to pastors in my House district in the past. The pastors I talked to about it tell me they threw it in the trash.

Actual Letter at LINK

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the IRS to investigate First Baptist Church of Dallas and its pastor for posting videos that endorse a presidential candidate, but the pastor isn't concerned about it. Pastor Robert Jeffress, who is familiar with Americans United's executive director Barry Lynn, introduced Rick Perry at last weekend's Values Voter Summit at the request of the Family Research Council. Following the scuffle about the pastor's subsequent comments on Mormonism being a "cult," the church-state separation advocacy group targeted Jeffress. "Barry Lynn has spent his whole career writing letters to the IRS trying...

Texas Governor Rick Perry’s prayer and fasting event slated to be held in Houston later this summer is drawing criticism from advocates of separation from church and state and gay rights organizations. Earlier this week, Perry called upon U.S. governors, fellow Texans, and people from all backgrounds and Christian denominations to join him August 6 for a “solemn day of prayer and fasting on behalf of our troubled nation” at Reliant Stadium. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has attacked the governor’s involvement in “The Response” prayer event, which he compares to...

Several members of Congress and one of America's most prominent religious leaders criticized President Obama on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a seeming brush-off during National Day of Prayer observances and for not referring to America as a "Judeo-Christian" nation in remarks last month in Turkey. "We are disappointed at the lack of emphasis on prayer at the National Day of Prayer," James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, told reporters at the Cannon House Office Building after a three-hour prayer observance. "There are tens of millions of people praying across this country - 40,000 prayer events taking place...

Rob Boston of “Americans United for the Separation of Church and State” has decided to engage in verbal bullying with the leadership of the US Catholic Church. In a posting on the AU web site entitled “Texas Side Step: Bishops’ Letter Attacking Pro-Choice Candidates Attempts To Sashay Past Federal Tax Law”, the Assistant Director of Communications has signaled their legal strategy. The group has quite a history of anti-Catholicism in their efforts. They were originally called “Protestants United for the Separation of Church and State”, but changed their name for obvious reasons. However, with their recent efforts to bully Catholic...

Rev. Barry Lynn is the self appointed watch dog who runs “Americans United for the Separation of Church and State”; a well funded 501 c3 exempt public policy and educational organization. I am well acquainted with Rev. Lynn. For years, while I served as the first Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), in the 19990’s, a public interest law firm committed to an authentic view of religious freedom, we crossed paths quite a few times. He still regularly debates my friend, the Chief Counsel for the ACLJ, and noted Supreme Court Advocate, Jay Sekulow. I...

IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OBAMA'S appearance, Lynn was quick to issue a pass for his own church, saying neither Obama nor the UCC had "run afoul of federal tax law."

The Christian Century Magazine News March 25, 2008 IRS probes appearance by Obama at UCC convention The Internal Revenue Service has notified the United Church of Christ that it has opened an investigation into possible "political activities" connected with Senator Barack Obama's speech at the denomination's national convention last year. UCC president John H. Thomas termed the investigation "disturbing," but said that church officials took great care to see that Obama's appearance at the UCC General Synod meeting last June in Hartford, Connecticut, "met appropriate legal and moral standards." Engaging in partisan political acts can endanger a church body's tax-exempt...

Pastors and other Christian leaders have new resources to help their followers cast informed ballots in the presidential elections this year. Each election year, Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State mails letters to churches warning them against any involvement with politics. Buddy Smith with the American Family Association -- a former pastor who received one of those letters -- says Lynn's method may be effective, but his motive is suspect. "We must commend him, to a certain degree, in that he is effective at intimidating some pastors from stepping forward in this arena, really...

Liberty Chancellor Used School Resources To Promote Presidential Candidate, Church-State Watchdog Group Says BBSNews 2007-12-04 -- (AU) Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. violated federal tax law by using school resources to endorse Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, Americans United for Separation of Church and State told the Internal Revenue Service today. In a complaint filed with the federal tax agency, Americans United noted that Falwell hosted the candidate at Liberty University and then sent an email message on Liberty University letterhead endorsing Huckabee. In a "Liberty News Alert" dated Dec. 1, 2007, Falwell wrote, "Recently, Governor Mike Huckabee called...

You've got to hand it to Barack Obama. He used his presidential campaign speech to a church to call for separation of church and state and then divided himself from the "religious right" by labeling the movement "divisive." Not every rhetorician could get away with that kind of sleight of mouth. First off, the very presence of Obama speaking before the United Church of Christ's 50th anniversary national General Synod is somewhat remarkable. He's running for president. And this is the congregation of Barry Lynn, the founder of American United for Separation of Church and State, who runs a personal...

WASHINGTON, June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of Pagan religious leaders from diverse denominations will gather in Lafayette Square Park on the Fourth of July to advocate for a Pagan military chaplain, request more approved Pagan religious symbols from the Department of Veterans Affairs and call for universal freedom of religious expression. Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State will also address the crowd. "Until Pagans have the same rights as Presbyterians and Pentecostals, religious liberty is not safe in America. The Framers of our Constitution mandated no preference for any one religion over another...

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, June 15, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of the Diocese of Providence in Rhode Island is under fire from an activist group that claims his recent column in the diocesean newspaper criticizing Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani for his position on abortion violated the Church’s tax-exempt status. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Tobin to determine whether he violated the Church’s tax-exempt status. The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the group’s executive director, said in a news release that Tobin “appears to have violated federal tax...

Some comments on the death of Jerry Falwell: "Jerry has been a tower of strength on many of the moral issues which have confronted our nation." — evangelist Pat Robertson. ___ "Dr. Falwell's shadow falls across the face of the rebirth of conservative values in our nation, in the Southern Baptist Convention, and in the entire evangelical world. Only once in a generation will a man of his stature arise. We all owe him a debt of eternal gratitude." — Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. ___ "Unfortunately, we will always remember him as...

There is an undeniable beauty to laissez-faire theory, with its promise that by struggling against one another, by grasping and elbowing and shouting and shoving, we create efficiency and satisfaction and progress for all. This concept has shaped, at the most fundamental levels, how we understand and engineer our basic freedoms -economic, political, and moral. Until recently, however, most politicians and economists accepted that freedom within the marketplace had to be limited, at least to some degree, by rules designed to ensure general economic and social outcomes. From Adam Smith onward, almost all the great preachers of laissez-faire were tempered...

According to a Hartford Courant article (http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctlaborflap0603.artjun03,0,6858521.story?coll=hc-headlines-local) the State of Connecticut is funding $100,000 for te United Church of Christ convention in Hartford next year. The executive director for Americans United is Barry Lynn - who is also a UCC minister. So far, Americans United has not responded to any questions about the Hartford Convention despite numerous call and emails. PLEASE CONTACT AMERICANS UNITED today and ask them to prove they are not partisan by checking on their own director's church. PLEASE CALL EMAIL OR FAX THEM AS SOON AS YOU CAN. Just last month, Americans United publicly complained about...