Should
churches support candidates for election?
from the Presbyterian Washington Office
dated 2/7/02; posted here on 2-8-02
Congress now has a bill that would remove the IRS
regulation against houses of worship supporting or opposing particular
candidates during an election.
Below is a comment from our Constitutional Services
department in reference to the issue as well as an article by Laura
Goodstein. This is a newly re-emerging issue. Contact your member of the
House with your opinion on this.
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From Mark Tammen -- Constitutional Services of GA-PC(USA)
"Since this Bill has come into being since the
General Assembly last summer, I do not believe there is a GA action on
this specific point. The last time the General Assembly dealt with this
particular issue, we were quite uncomfortable with this sort of
relationship."
In the 1988 Statement, "God Alone is Lord of the
Conscience," the Assembly opined:
"We recognize that speaking out on issues will
sometimes constitute implicit support or opposition to particular
candidates or parties, where policy and platform differences are clearly
drawn. Since such differences are the vital core of the political
process, church participation should not be curtailed on that account;
but we believe it is generally unwise and imprudent for the church
explicitly to support or oppose specific candidates, except in unusual
circumstances." (p. 52)
Therefore, I suspect if the Assembly were asked, based
on the last sentence quoted above, would likely not support HR 2357.
Mark Tammen
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Churches on Right Seek Right to Back Candidates
February 3, 2002
By Laurie Goodstein
As far back as the Revolutionary War, America's
religious leaders have taken to their pulpits to galvanize their
followers on the political issues of the day from taxation to slavery to
abortion.
But since 1954, when Senator Lyndon B. Johnson pushed
a little-noticed law through Congress, ministers have been barred from
preaching about political candidates. Under the law, churches are
prohibited from endorsing or opposing candidates or risk being stripped
of their tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service.
Nevertheless, the law is frequently flouted, and the I.R.S. rarely
intervenes.
Now religious conservatives are starting a campaign to
remove the prohibition. A Republican member of Congress from North
Carolina, Walter B. Jones Jr., decided last year to make it his
signature issue.
The cause has been taken up by more than 12 religious
conservative lobbying groups and is becoming a frequent topic on
Christian talk shows on radio and television.
Mr. Jones's bill, the Houses of Worship Political
Speech Protection Act, would "permit churches and other houses of
worship to engage in political campaigns." Although it has yet to
be scheduled for a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee,
the legislation, H.R. 2357, has gathered 112 co-sponsors, all but four
of them Republicans. Among them are the majority whip, Tom DeLay, and
the majority leader, Dick Armey, both of Texas.
"Many churches and pastors frankly don't speak
out on the moral issues of the day for the fear they may be regarded by
the I.R.S. as too political," said Colby M. May, Washington
director of the American Center for Law and Justice, which works on
religious cases. "You've got to ask, `Why are we putting our I.R.S.,
which is designed to collect revenue for the general treasury, in the
position of being the speech police?' "
Opponents say the bill is little more than a strategy
by leaders of the religious right like Pat Robertson, the Christian
broadcaster, to mobilize conservative churches on behalf of conservative
candidates. Mr. Robertson recently had Mr. Jones as a guest on "The
700 Club," his television show, and encouraged his viewers to
contact heir legislators to support the bill.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, defended the current law, calling it
"a good thing for the church and a good thing for our political
system." "If we change it," Mr. Lynn said, "we're
going to see politicians running around seeking support of Churches and
hoping that they can curry favor with those churches by promising them
money and favors."
The law dates from 1954, when Mr. Johnson added an
amendment to a revenue bill that prohibited all groups with a nonprofit,
or 501(c)3, tax-exempt status from endorsing or opposing candidates. It
passed by unanimous consent.
Historians have said Mr. Johnson intended to silence
two groups connected to the Hunt family, which opposed his re-election.
But because houses of worship also have the exempt designation, the law
also applied to them.
"Johnson took away the freedom of our preachers,
priests and rabbis," Mr. Jones said in an interview.
Nevertheless, years went by and preachers endorsed
politicians from the pulpit with no repercussions. But in the last two
decades, conservative and evangelical churches have become increasingly
involved in campaigns, drawing more scrutiny by the revenue service.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a
liberal watchdog group, began sending churches warnings about the
prohibition on partisan politics and reported several churches, accusing
them of overstepping the law.
On the talk shows, Mr. Jones and others have accused
the revenue service of biased enforcement, investigating just
conservative, predominantly white churches while ignoring liberal,
predominantly black churches that routinely invite candidates to appear
in their pulpits.
The I.R.S., which declined to comment, has penalized
extremely few churches. In the case that received the most attention,
the conservative Church at Pierce Creek in Conklin, N.Y., near
Binghamton, had its tax- exempt status revoked for sponsoring a
full-page advertisement that opposed Bill Clinton's presidential
candidacy. Although Mr. Jones's bill has become a pet cause for the
religious right, with the Rev. Jerry Falwell making it the centerpiece
of a recent fund-raising letter, it is unclear how many members of the
clergy will promote it. Even one minister whose church endured a
four-year investigation that was subsequently dropped said that although
churches should be allowed to endorse candidates, they should avoid it.
"I just think the religious entities of America
need to keep their prophetic voice," said the Rev. Ed Young, senior
minister of the Second Baptist Church in Houston. "And you lose
that if you send money to politicians or openly support them during an
election season."
