Friday, November 02, 2007

1st Amendment and Churches

I encourage everyone to read the following article: Church Free Speech. It is an editorial on the way our government restricts political speech in the U.S. It turns out it was one of the many mad ideas of LBJ made law. The First Amendment of the Constitution says that Congress shall make NO LAW either restricting the freedom of speech or setting up a state religion. This means that the government cannot tell people what they can or cannot say, particularly those in religious positions. It does not mean that religious leaders are not allowed to engage in political speech. The tax-exempt status was a sinister way of shutting down political speech in our churches by first offering them something, and then threatening to take it away from them. The result is that it is and can be used to intimidate people to not engage in political speech. And that is outright illegal. It is time churches got together and brought this to the Supreme Court so we can get rid of this illegal law.

1 comment:

Ann crum said...

That's the problem with government "funding", either by way of tax exemptions or by way of receiving funds. Once the government inserts money into anything, they then have a say into what goes on. The 501c3 exemption which you addressed is case in point, and one that the government should rescind so that there is true free speech from the pulpit. The real shame, though, is how many churches jump into this exemption.