Preachers like Ron Johnson are going to endorse candidates from the pulpit tomorrow:
When Ron Johnson takes take his pulpit on Sunday, he will willfully break the law. After presenting his views on President Barack Obama's handling of religious issues –- like abortion, gay marriage, and religious freedom - Johnson will ask his congregation a question.What's the point of this?
"In light of what I have presented," Johnson says he will say, "How can you go into that election booth and vote for Barack Obama as president of the United States?"
What Johnson plans to do is in violation of the IRS' so-called Johnson Amendment, a 1954 law that has made it illegal for churches that receive tax exempt status from the federal government to intervene in "any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."I absolutely support that 1954 law. It's in no way a freedom-of-speech issue: These preachers can retain their tax-exempt status while talking about issues (the way preachers did during the civil rights era) -- they just can't endorse candidates. And there's actually no law saying they can't endorse from the pulpit at all -- they just lose their tax-exempt status if they do. Freedom of speech is a right; tax-exempt status is a privilege.
... He will be joined by at least 1,400 others pastors across the United States.
... The goal: Force the IRS to come down on these churches so that the Alliance Defending Freedom, whose network includes 2,200 attorneys, can test the Johnson Amendment's constitutionality....
Nevertheless, I recognize that this law might well be struck down soon (it almost certainly will be if President Romney gets to pick the next two or three Supreme Court justices). I won't be happy -- but I could imagine some good coming from it.
I say this because I was raised Catholic. My old church has veered sharply to the right on many issues -- and yet when people think about the Catholic Church, they still think Bing Crosby in Going My Way. They can't see what's obvious: The Catholic Church in America is now part of the religious right.
If it becomes legal to endorse from the pulpit, I hope a lot of Catholic priests start endorsing, because they're overwhelmingly going to endorse anti-abortion, anti-gay Republicans. Furthermore, the remaining few liberal priests who endorse pro-choice and pro-gay politicians will probably be chastised or disciplined.
I don't know what more the Catholic Church has to do to make the scales fall from liberal and moderate Catholics' eyes, but maybe if they hear their parish priests issuing political endorsements like this, it will finally get through to them that Rick Santorum is no outlier -- he articulates mainstream Catholic thinking on sexual issues.
And so maybe a few liberal and moderate Catholics will finally start to feel sufficiently unwelcome in the church. That should have happened a long time ago. The church doesn't deserve liberals' and moderates' membership or money. The church should shrink down to what it clearly wants to be: a small, angry, bitter right-wing sect that's obsessed with sexual policing.
Maybe legalized open endorsements will also hurt a few Protestant churches where moderates (and even some liberals) feel welcome. Maybe a huckster like Rick Warren will finally show his true wingnut colors, and lose some of his flock (and revenue).
So, yeah, if we lose that law, I'll be sorry, but maybe it won't be all bad.
