GOP bill would let churches endorse political candidates

[Free Vulcan]

WASHINGTON — Churches should have the First Amendment right to endorse political candidates and still keep their tax-free status, say House Republicans, who quietly tucked a provision into a sweeping spending bill that would deny the IRS money to enforce the 63-year-old law prohibiting such outright politicking from the pulpit.

Republicans repeatedly have failed to scrap the law preventing churches and other non-profits from backing candidates, so now they are trying to starve it. With little fanfare, a House Appropriations subcommittee added the IRS measure to a bill to fund the Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies.

Read more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-gop-bill-would-let-churches-endorse-politicians/2017/06/30/9a63d750-5dbb-11e7-aa69-3964a7d55207_story.html

[unite for individuality]

This would reverse the Johnson Amendment of 1954.
Senator Lyndon Johnson added to another bill
this intentional violation of the 1st Amendment
to punish churches for having enough intelligence and morality
to not support him.

[Bigun]

This would reverse the Johnson Amendment of 1954.
Senator Lyndon Johnson added to another bill
this intentional violation of the 1st Amendment
to punish churches for having enough intelligence and morality
to not support him.

Something that should have been done long ago IMHO.

[unite for individuality]

Something that should have been done long ago IMHO.

Attempts have been made in recent years.
Some churches have been participating in "Religious Freedom Sunday."
On the last Sunday in September,
many churches deliberately violate the Johnson Amendment,
DARING the IRS to take action against them.

The IRS has never taken the bait,
because they know full well that they DESERVE to lose in court!
The IRS fears that the Supreme Court might
uphold the Constitution and strike down the Johnson Amendment.
Then the IRS wouldn't have their "law"
with which to intimidate all the other churches into silence.

[Fantom]

The separation is .."State from Church"....not "Church from State".

[GtHawk]

Outstanding, it would then put all churches on an equal footing with Black churches.

[catfish1957]

Outstanding, it would then put all churches on an equal footing with Black churches.

Thanks for saying it.  QFT.

[Fishrrman]

Title:
"GOP bill would let churches endorse political candidates"

I personally don't have any problems with this, but I'm thinking it could backfire on the Pubbies.

Seems like more and more churches are leanin' to the left these days...

[Chosen Daughter]

Every Christian is responsible for discerning right from wrong.  When the church turns into a political whore its time to get out.

[Applewood]

Title:
"GOP bill would let churches endorse political candidates"

I personally don't have any problems with this, but I'm thinking it could backfire on the Pubbies.

Seems like more and more churches are leanin' to the left these days...

Agreed...at least as far as the Catholic Church is concerned.  Actually,  that church has always been more leftist/socialist leaning when it comes to the so-called poor in the US.  But  wiith a socialist pope at the helm, it has gotten much worse. 

[unite for individuality]

Title:
"GOP bill would let churches endorse political candidates"

I personally don't have any problems with this, but I'm thinking it could backfire on the Pubbies.

Seems like more and more churches are leanin' to the left these days...

In recent decades, left-leaning churches have been losing members,
while more conservative, "fundamentalist" churches have been growing.

[Cripplecreek]

Good.

Fact is that lefty churches have been endorsing candidates all along despite the law and its time to eliminate this unconstitutional attack on speech.

[Cripplecreek]

Every Christian is responsible for discerning right from wrong.  When the church turns into a political whore its time to get out.

Political speech from the pulpit was the seed that was planted for the American revolution. Churches have the same responsibility to speak against immorality and name those who enable it.

If it was such a terrible thing our founders would have silenced the churches in their day and we wouldn't have needed a scumbag like LBJ to save us.

[Applewood]

I grew up Catholic.  As a kid, we had a pastor who would not explicitly endorse a candidate, but he would give us subtle, or not so subtle, hints.  He would urge us to vote and he would "suggest" that we vote for the candidate whose political views were closest to Catholic ideals.  Unless a parishioner lived under a rock, he/she knew the candidates' views on such issues as abortion and birth control, 2 big no-nos in the Catholic faith.  So the parishioner knew which candidate the pastor was endorsing without him actually saying so.