On September 28, thirty-three pastors around the nation participated in "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," an initiative by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) designed to challenge a 1954 amendment to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) that prohibits churches from supporting or opposing candidates for political office from the pulpit.

Churches, which are tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the IRC, can lose their tax-exempt status if they engage in prohibited electioneering. The ban against electioneering applies to all 501(c)(3) organizations.

ADF, an alliance of conservative attorneys, encouraged dozens of pastors to intentionally violate federal tax law by endorsing a political candidate from the pulpit, in hopes that the IRS will investigate the churches. ADF is hoping to challenge the IRS' ban on pulpit electioneering in federal court. Three former high level IRS officials filed an ethical complaint against ADF with the IRS.

According to an ADF Press Release, it will fight any attempt the IRS makes "to remove a church's tax-exempt status because a pastor exercised his constitutional right to engage in religious speech from the pulpit. The goal is to have the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional."

ADF released a list of the pastors who participated in "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" earlier today.

Rabbi Jack Moline, chairman of the Interfaith Alliance board, a group that believes religion and politics should remain separate, told the Washington Post that "a sanctuary should not be a place of political agitation on behalf of a candidate. On behalf of issues, yes. Of candidates, no."

Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed IRS complaints against six churches whose pastors endorsed candidates from the pulpit yesterday. Five of the six pastors in question openly endorsed Senator John McCain from the pulpit. The sixth pastor did not mention McCain, but he did criticize Senator Barack Obama stating, "according to my Bible and in my opinion, there is no way in the world a Christian can vote for Barack Hussein Obama. Mr. Obama is not standing up for anything that is tradition in America."

"Church leaders are supposed to tend to Americans' spiritual needs, not behave like partisan political hacks. I urge the IRS to act swiftly in these cases," said Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, in a Press Release.

The First Amendment Center conducts a survey every year on adults' opinions about free expression, a free press and religious liberty. A press release states; "Americans traditionally support the general concepts of free expression and religious liberty, but when asked about specific situations, many appear willing to accept a measure of government involvement or even control,' said Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center."

In a Los Angeles Times opinion piece, Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) and Erik Stanley, head of the Pulpit Initiative for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) debate federal tax laws that prohibit clergy members from publicly endorsing political candidates.

Stanley defends ADF's Pulpit Initiative, meant "to restore the right of pastors to speak freely to their congregations. The goal is not to turn churches into political action committees. Rather, the Pulpit Initiative is designed to restore freedom to the pulpit." He goes on to assert that tax exemption is a right, and clergy are being censored. "The point is not whether pastors actually will speak on the issues of candidates and elections (and no one is forcing or telling them to speak about candidates or elections), but whether the government has the right to tell them they cannot under threat of losing their tax-exempt status."

While Lynn reminds us that the prohibition "does not say that pastors, priests, rabbis or imams cannot applaud or denounce policies of the government at any level; it doesn't prohibit clergy specifically arguing that parishioners should support a named and numbered piece of legislation or an upcoming ballot initiative. It just says no help for candidates on the campaign trail with the resources or imprimatur of your church."

See below for an update on the Pulpit Initiative.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has agreed to review a complaint by three former top IRS officials that the Alliance Defense Fund's (ADF) "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" violates federal tax law. Pulpit Freedom Sunday is part of an initiative asking churches to defy the IRS's prohibition against partisan politicking by preaching sermons that support or oppose a candidate for political office.

ADF distributed information about "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" at the Value Voters Summit 2008, which was held on September, 20.

BNA reported ($$) that a letter from Michael Chessman, director of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, acknowledges receiving the complaint from Marcus Owens, an attorney with Caplin & Drysdale, and a former IRS director. In the letter, the IRS has agreed to "review this information carefully and give it all due consideration."

To see other blog postings on "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," click here and here.

The Congressional Research Service issued a report ($$) that analyzes legislative efforts to lift the ban on church electioneering. The report is titled Churches and Campaign Activity: Analysis of the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act and Similar Legislation. It highlights legislation that has been introduced in the past few years in an attempt to allow religious organizations to engage in political activities without jeopardizing their tax exempt status.

Legislation to lift the church electioneering ban has been introduced in Congress each of the last four years. In the legislation, the word "church" is used to refer to all religious organizations.

The current bill, H.R. 2275, was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee on May 10. According to BNA, ($$) [u]nder the bill, churches and other Section 501(c)(3) organizations would be allowed to engage in all types of campaign activity without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status." The only limitation would be "that it could not be the organization's primary activity."

The previous bills included H.R. 235, (109th Congress) the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act, which said that "churches would not have been treated as participating in campaign activity" because of the content or presentation of any sermon or other "presentation made during religious services or gatherings."

H.R. 235 (108th Congress) which was an earlier version of the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act.

A provision in H.R. 4520 (108th Congress) would have allowed religious leaders to make political statements without their churches being regarded as having participated in campaign activity. Also, churches that unintentionally engaged in electioneering would not lose their tax-exempt status unless it happened more than three times in one year. Finally, unintentional violations would have been subject to a new excise tax.

H.R. 2357 and S. 2886 (107th Congress), the Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act, would have allowed "churches to engage in campaign activity so long as it was 'no substantial part' of a church's activities."

Under H.R. 2931 (107th Congress), the Bright-Line Act of 2001, a church would have "violated the campaign prohibition if it normally made expenditures for campaign activity in excess of 5% of its gross revenues. Lobbying expenditures could not have normally exceeded 20% of its gross revenues, and the church could not have normally spent more than 20% of its gross revenues on campaign and lobbying activities combined."

In May of this year, we posted a blog focusing on the Alliance Defense Fund's "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," part of the organization's "Pulpit Initiative," scheduled for September 28, that is asking churches to defy the IRS's prohibition against partisan politicking by religious organizations. ADF is asking pastors to preach sermons which openly support or oppose candidates for elected office. Dozens of pastors have agreed to participate.

In response to this initiative, two Ohio pastors, the Rev. Eric Williams and the Rev. Robert Molsberry, are asking clergy to preach about the benefit of the separation between church and state on September 21.

The Ohio pastors are leading a group of 55 religious leaders who filed a complaint with the IRS asking them to force ADF to stop encouraging pastors to violate federal tax law on "Pulpit Freedom Sunday."

According to the Washington Post, the clergy stated in the claim that, "as religious leaders, we have grave concerns about the ethical implications of soliciting and organizing churches to violate core principles of our society."

According to the Associated Press, the complaint "asks the IRS to stop the Alliance Defense Fund from signing up churches to violate the federal restriction." They also want the IRS to investigate if the pulpit initiative itself violates the law and jeopardizes ADF's tax-exempt status.

Three former top IRS officials have also asked the agency to investigate ADF's actions surrounding "Pulpit Freedom Sunday."

Erik Stanley, ADF's attorney, wrote an article which outlines ADF's viewpoint. ADF believes that the IRS' ban on partisan politicking and electioneering is unconstitutional. "The tax agency's rule is unconstitutional because it muzzles free speech and improperly entangles the state in church affairs," Stanley said.

Earlier this week, we mentioned that American's United Against the Separation of Church and State filed an IRS complaint ($$) against Atlah World Missionary Church in Harlem, New York for engaging in prohibited electioneering. Several videos posted on the church's website and on YouTube show Rev. James Manning, who is African-American and the pastor of the church, making crude and derogatory comments about Senator Obama.

Religious organizations, which are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, are prohibited from promoting or opposing a candidate for political office. A charity or religious organization that violates this prohibition may have its tax-exempt status revoked.

Some of the comments that Manning made about Senator Obama from the pulpit are that he is a "pimp" and a "long legged mack daddy." When speaking about Obama, he also said, "you don't get your campaign started with a big-chested white woman," a reference to the popular Obama Girl YouTube video, which was done without the consent of the Obama campaign. One particularly demeaning comment Manning made was that Obama's "African, in-heat father went a whoring after a trashy white woman. He was born trash."

In another statement from the pulpit, Manning seems to clearly tell the congregation not to vote for Obama. In that statement, Manning says, "I want to say to you, black America, that Barack Hussein Obama is not the one. God has not sent him. He is a diversion from the truth."

To see some of the derogatory comments that Rev. Manning made against Senator Obama, click here and here.

Many churches are now using the World Wide Web to disseminate their message to large groups of people. As a result, messages that previously would have been confined to the walls of the church and only heard by like-minded individuals are now heard by both supporters and opponents of the message. Federal tax law prohibits a pastor from giving a message that promotes or opposes a candidate for political office. The IRS can revoke a charity or religious organization's tax exempt status for engaging in prohibited partisan politicking.

However, many pastors have been doing this for years without repercussions. Generally, the IRS investigates if someone files a complaint with them. With the messages being disseminated to a larger group of people on the web, the likelihood that the message will be heard by an individual who feels that message violates the IRS prohibition against electioneering increases.

According to the New York Times, Atlah World Ministries in Harlem is being investigated because a video of its Pastor, James David Manning, making derogatory comments about Barack Obama appeared on the church's website and on YouTube. In addition to the derogatory comments about Senator Obama, "Mr. Manning praised Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, the former president, for bringing economic vitality to Harlem, but called Mr. Obama the candidate of 'irresponsibility and unaccountability'." As a result of the YouTube video, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed a complaint with the IRS.

The IRS has also launched other high profile investigations as a result of information that came to light on the web. They are currently investigating Bill Keller, a Florida televangelist who preached that a presidential vote for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon, was "a vote for Satan." This sermon came to light because the sermon was posted on Keller's website. Also, Americans United filed a complaint against Cornerstone Church in Madison, Tennessee asserting that the Pastor violated federal tax law during a sermon in which the Pastor endorsed three School Board candidates from the pulpit. Americans United was made aware of the incident because the sermon was posted on the Church's website and, as a result, a local newspaper published the comments.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization, is fighting back against the IRS by arranging "Pulpit Free Sunday" on September 28, in which clergy members will violate IRS rules by preaching sermons that promote or oppose political candidates.