As a kid, the church was always a big part of my life. I was that girl, the one who raised her hand and asked questions and often got shushed in service. I did, however, eventually have the good fortune to have a pastor who was everything that I thought a religious leader should be: smart, articulate, and compassionate. He encouraged us to read and think and seek answers. So I did.
When I got older, I taught Sunday School at my church. One Sunday, the lesson focused on the importance of being involved in governance – not necessarily running for office but how we had this bigger responsibility to make our communities and by extension, the world, a better place. I told my class that the cool thing about the United States was that we have the opportunity to communicate how we felt about issues not only by voting but also by writing directly to government leaders. I gave them paper and the address to the White House and asked them to write a letter to the President about an issue that was important to them.
I thought it was an innocent enough exercise. But apparently not everyone thought the same way. I was approached by the Sunday School director about my lesson. I was, we were told, not to mix politics and religion.
The next year, members of my church helped organize a boycott of ABC and Disney for airing Ellen – the TV sitcom featuring Ellen DeGeneres – because they felt it promoted homosexuality. Apparently that whole “don’t mix politics and religion” thing only applied when you didn’t like the result.
That’s exactly the dilemma that churches all over the country face each week in America – even more so during election season. While it is a free country and we do have the freedom of speech, the Tax Code has had, since 1954, prohibited tax-exempt organizations “from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of [or opposing] any candidate for elective public office.” And that includes churches. Crossing that line can result in the loss of tax-exempt status.
Every election season, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sends out notices reminding tax-exempt organizations to be careful. But that doesn’t stop them. Religious intervention in politics has made news for years. The last presidential race, in particular, drew scrutiny from the IRS for a number of incidents. First Baptist Church of Buena Park Pastor Wiley Drake was investigated for formally endorsing Mike Huckabee for President on church letterhead (and later praying that those who objected to his endorsement would die). During that same race, Bill Keller of liveprayer.com was called out for advising his followers that a vote for Mitt Romney was a vote for Satan because, as as he wrote, “Romney winning the White House will lead millions of people into the Mormon cult… ROMNEY GETTING ELECTED PRESIDENT WILL ULTIMATELY LEAD MILLIONS OF SOULS TO THE ETERNAL FLAMES OF HELL!!! (emphasis is Mr. Keller’s).” And, of course, Pastor James David Manning of Atlah World Ministries, made headlines for repeatedly calling then-Senator Barack Obama a “Mack Daddy” and a pimp before later referring to him as an “emissary of the devil” – all from the pulpit.
So far, this election has been tame by comparison. That may change this weekend: this Sunday, October 7, marks “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” The event, which is the brainchild of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Alliance Defending Freedom (previously called the Alliance Defense Fund), is a call for pastors to speak from the pulpit and to address specific candidates, issues and politics head-on. The sermons will be taped and sent to the IRS – kind of like a big dare. ADF is not only hoping for but seeking a response from the IRS. The goal is to challenge a revocation of status in the courts as against freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
Will that happen? Probably not. Despite the IRS sending up flares each year, it appears reticent to take ADF seriously and with good reason: in 2008, the event only drew the support of about thirty pastors (the group expects bigger numbers this year; the number of those pastors participating has reportedly grown every year). It’s a stunt. An interesting stunt but a stunt nonetheless. From a tax standpoint, they’re way off base. The rules on this are very clear.
And yes, I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in freedom of religion. But I also believe in the separation of church and state. I’m not sure why religious leaders feel that they should have special rules – in fact, I’m pretty sure that most of those pastors preach from a Bible in which Jesus advises that it’s important to have respect for the rules of government.
I would think if you think those rules unfairly tie your hands – and you want to say what you want to say – then do it. Just don’t take advantage of tax-exempt status. Realistically, charitable deductions and tax breaks for charitable organizations make a dent in tax revenue. And we’ve decided, as a society, that it’s a good thing if those dollars are going to good causes like medical research and feeding the hungry and educating our children. Not stumping for your candidate of choice.
Tax issues aside, I don’t know about you but I happen to think I’m in a pretty good place to decide which candidates and which issues matter to me. I don’t need a specific candidate endorsement from my religious leader, no matter how cool I think he is (in fact, even though we don’t always agree, my priest weighs in on the blog some time on issues).
So, you do what you have to do this Sunday. But I would urge you to consider the words of one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson (*that’s the J in the post’s title, by the way):
Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the ‘wall of separation between church and state,’ therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.
