Choking on Their Own Spittle

Trey Smith

Baptist Pastor Mark Harris stood before his flock in North Carolina on Sunday and joined hundreds of other religious leaders in deliberately breaking the law in an election-year campaign that tests the role of churches in politics.

By publicly backing candidates for political office from the pulpit, Harris and nearly 1,500 other preachers at services across the United States were flouting a law they see as an incursion on freedom of religion and speech.

Under the U.S. tax code, non-profit organizations such as churches may express views on any issue, but they jeopardize their favorable tax-exempt status if they speak for or against any political candidate.

"Pulpit Freedom Sunday" has been staged annually since 2008 by a group called the Alliance Defending Freedom. Its aim is to provoke a challenge from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in order to file a lawsuit and have its argument out in court.

The event has grown steadily in size, but the IRS has yet to respond - even though the pastors tape their sermons and mail them to the agency.
~ from Hundreds of Pastors Back Political Candidates, Defy Tax Rules by Nanette Byrnes ~

Contrary to their bleating, this is neither a free speech nor a free religion issue; it's a tax issue, pure and simple.

What irritates me the most is that conservatives -- particularly wealthy Christian fundamentalists -- don't have a problem with putting stipulations on poor people who apply for government services, but they don't want the same principles applied to them!

Conservatives champion laws and policies that place limits on how poor people comport themselves. For example, if you want to apply for Food Stamps or welfare in some jurisdictions, you can't be a regular [illegal] drug user. You must take a pee test and, if illicit drugs are found in your system, then you aren't eligible to receive (or continue receiving) certain entitlements.

Hey, we aren't dictating how you choose to live your life, conservatives say. If using drugs is important to you, go for it...just don't expect taxpayers to foot the bill!

Well, golly gee, the very same principle is at work in terms of tax-exempt organizations! No one is telling a nonprofit or church that they can't advocate for or against political candidates. All the rules stipulate is that, if such advocating is important to you, then don't expect taxpayers to foot your bill.

And let's face it. Tax-exempt status is as much an entitlement as Food Stamps or welfare. When an organization or church is excused from paying federal taxes (often state taxes too), then other members of society are making up the difference. Other people are paying more, so your group doesn't have to pay at all.

If conservatives favor placing restrictions on poor people in order to qualify for certain entitlements, then why do they not wish to apply the same principle to nonprofits and churches?