On Sept. 26, dozens of U.S. pastors will deliberately preach politically

   SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — For more than a half-century, federal law has restricted the right of most churches and pastors to speak out about candidates for office.
   But on Sunday, Sept. 28, about 50 pastors nationwide — including one in Oregon and two in Washington — will deliberately challenge that law by speaking out politically from their pulpits.
   Pulpit Freedom Sunday is a project of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), an Arizona-based Christian legal action organization. It is the first step in a concerted effort to reclaim freedom for the pulpit —the Pulpit Initiative.
According to ADF, churches historically have emphatically, and with great passion, spoken Scriptural truth from the pulpit about government and culture. Pastors long spoke out on great moral issues such as slavery, women’s suffrage, child labor and prostitution. Pastors also have spoken from the pulpit with great frequency for and against various candidates for government office.
   All that changed in 1954 with the passage of the “Johnson amendment,” which restricted the right of churches and pastors to speak about candidates for office. The amendment was proposed by then-Senator Lyndon Johnson, and it changed the Internal Revenue Code to prohibit churches and other non-profit organizations from supporting or opposing a candidate for office. Afer the amendment passed, churches faced a choice of either continuing their tradition of speaking out or silencing themselves in order to retain their church’s tax exemption.
   ADF claims the Internal Revenue Service has used the amendment to create an atmosphere of intimidation and fear for any church that dares to speak truthfully about candidates for office.
  “It is time for the intimidation and threats to end,” ADF states on its web site. “Churches and pastors have a constitutional right to speak freely and truthfully from the pulpit, even on candidates and voting, without fearing loss of their tax exemption.”
   ADF specifically sought out pastors who are willing on Sept. 28 to preach from the pulpit a sermon — carefully prepared with ADF assistance — that will address candidates for government office in light of the truth of Scripture. The sermon is intended to challenge the IRS code, and in so doing, move toward “recapturing the rightful place of pastors and churches in American life.”
   If the IRS responds by investigating a church for the sermon, churches who are investigated may serve as clients for lawsuits against the IRS in federal court.
   The ADF will represent these churches for free and will seek to demonstrate that the IRS restriction on pastors’ speech violates the U.S. Constitution.
   If a lawsuit is unsuccessful, the IRS could impose one of two tax consequences on the church, according to ADF. First, it could levy an “excise” tax against the church that would likely not be very large. Or, the IRS could revoke a church’s tax-exempt status for a period of time, but only up to the tax year in which the speech occurred.
   An ADF spokesman told Christian News Northwest that the participating  pastors and churches — including the three in the Northwest — will be made public later this month. While many more pastors have inquired about participating, the number is being kept to about 50 for this initial effort.
Christian historian David Barton of the Wallbuilders ministry has enthusiastically endorsed the Pulpit Initiative.
    “It is time for pastors to regain the freedom they had for the first 350 years of American history — and for several thousand years before that, as when Elijah, Nathan, Gad, Elisha, and numerous others of God’s ministers spoke directly into the political arena, taking stands on the policies and civil leaders of the day,” said Barton.
   Barton called for prayer for the Pulpit Initiative, and also for the pastors who he said are willing to “step out on the firing lines in this initiative.
“They undoubtedly will take the heat of criticism and of negative media coverage as the secularists surely will explode in outrage over this venture.”
   Churches and pastors who desire more information should phone Alliance Defense Fund at 800-TELL-ADF or go to www.telladf.org/church.


.