To Speak or Not?

There’s a bit of a fiasco going on right now about “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.” Evidently there’s a groundswell of pastors and leaders who think the IRS is clamping down to much on what can and what cannot be said from the pulpit on Sundays. I’m wondering what folks are thinking about this?

Nearly 100 pastors across the country planned to take part in Pulpit Freedom Sunday, an in-your-face challenge on Sunday to what the government says can and cannot be said in church.

The pastors, along with the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based nonprofit Alliance Defense Fund, are reacting to a law stating that churches are not allowed to support politicians from the pulpit, according to the ADF.

The growing trend is a challenge to the IRS from the churches, and may jeopardize their all-important tax-exempt status. But some pastors and church leaders said they are willing to defy the law to defending their right to freedom of speech….

In 2008, 33 pastors took part in the first Pulpit Freedom Sunday, when they defiantly spoke of politics to their congregation.

According to Stanley, even though all the pastors involved recorded their sermons and sent them to the IRS, only one church was investigated by the IRS, and the audit was dropped after several months.

This year the numbers have tripled and the participating pastors again will be videotaping their sermons and sending them directly to the IRS.

“The whole goal is to foster a lawsuit where we could challenge the constitionality of the law,” Stanley said. “We believe if a federal judge looked at the constitutionality of what the IRS has done, it wouldn’t take long for the judge to strike it down as unconstitutional.

“It’s entirely appropriate to use the separation of church and state to tell government it has no business being in the pulpits of America,” he said. “This is about a pastor’s right of free speech.” …

Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, has made it clear that participating churches have plenty to lose.

“Tax exemption is not a right; it’s a privilege that comes with certain restrictions,” Lynn said.