The Religious Right just can’t seem to give it a rest this election season.
“The Free Exercise Thereof Project,” a new front group of Religious Right leaders, has just sent out an email to evangelical pastors urging them to get involved in the election process. (See a letter similar to the e-mail here.)
“This election is one of the most important ever, at all levels, from local school boards and city councils to state and national officials,” the email warns. “Which leaders might bring upon our nation the blessings — or the wrath — of God? What president will appoint justices who will uphold the intent of our godly founders over the next decades? What senators will confirm them?”
This serves as yet another example of the Religious Right’s push to forge churches into political machines.
The Sept. 18 e-mail was signed by 15 Religious Right leaders, including WallBuilders President David Barton, American Values President Gary Bauer, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, Alliance Defense Fund President Alan Sears and American Family Association President Don Wildmon, among other prominent players.
In the e-mail, they direct pastors to the Web site of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) for advice on what can and cannot be said legally from the pulpit if the church is receiving a tax exemption.
Apparently, this is the best resource they can come up with — a link to the Web site of a group that is encouraging pastors to break federal tax law by endorsing candidates from the pulpit. You would think the IRS Web site would be the better option, rather than the ADF’s “legal” interpretation.
Besides linking to the ADF’s various Web pages, the e-mail made it clear that the law permits pastors and churches to put out voter guides and educate on the issues. That certainly is true, but not if they follow the example of some of the e-mail’s authors.
In April, Americans United asked the IRS to investigate a biased voter guide issued by Barton’s WallBuilders and distributed by Wildmon’s American Family Association (AFA). It was clearly stacked to steer evangelical voters toward then-candidate Mike Huckabee.
Though tax-exempt groups may put out voter guides, the IRS is clear that voter education may not be biased in favor of one or more candidates.
The guide put out by WallBuilders and AFA distorted the views of the other candidates and relied on outdated information about these candidates’ views on select issues.
And just this week, WallBuilders came up with a new voter guide that is clearly designed to enlist evangelical voters to support Republican presidential candidate John McCain. A small print disclaimer states the guide was 501(c)(3) approved by Liberty Counsel and Liberty Legal Institute, but that means practically nothing considering those are far-from-objective Religious Right operations. (Liberty Counsel operates from the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University and is headed by the LU Law School dean!)
In sum, this Religious Right project deliberately misdirects pastors on IRS law in order to use churches to spread political propaganda. And sadly, the inaccuracies extend even to the titles given to these projects.
The Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause does not mean the freedom to endorse candidates from the pulpit, as the project’s leaders would like to suggest. Rather, the First Amendment’s use of the language “the free exercise thereof” translates into the ability to freely practice the religion of one’s choice — and certainly that does not require being able to make political endorsements from the tax-exempt pulpit.
Isn’t it time for these Religious Right groups to just give it up? No matter how they manipulate the law, the IRS’ stance remains the same: the privilege of a tax exemption means no endorsements from the pulpit (even if that endorsement is cloaked in sheep’s clothing).
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