This Sunday, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has called for an unprecedented protest against the IRS prohibition on partisan political activity for 501(c)(3) public charities.
“Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” as ADF is calling it, requests pastors across the country to preach from the pulpit about the “moral qualifications of candidates seeking political office,” thus violating the most important election-related law applicable to any public charity—absolutely no opposition or support for candidates for public office.
In response to these actions, Alliance for Justice calls upon the IRS to swiftly pursue an investigation of any church who participates in this protest. Failure to do so would only nullify the more than fifty year-old prohibition that thousands of other 501(c)(3) groups follow each and every day. And while the necessity of this tax law prohibition is often up for debate, the equal enforcement of the law is not. Therefore, the IRS must immediately respond to these anticipated violations of law to avoid the appearance of disparate treatment to the public charity community at large.
Under our constitution, these churches (like anyone else) do and always have retained the freedom to speak how they wish without regulation; however tax-exempt status is not a right, but a privilege—one that may not be used in furtherance of partisan political activity.
If churches desire to avoid this absolute prohibition against supporting or opposing candidates, they may simply relinquish their tax-exemption and endorse whomever they so choose from the pulpit.
0 comments:
Post a Comment