Today is 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday'-they're throwing down the gauntlet

[Freeper]

babylonsister (141,081 posts)

Today is 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday'-they're throwing down the gauntlet


 
http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/107788/churches-obama-tax-us-we-dare-you#


Churches to Obama: Tax Us, We Dare You

Amy Sullivan
September 26, 2012 | 3:56 pm

 
Mario Tama/Getty Images News/Getty Images


On Sunday, October 7, pastors around the country will try to bait the federal government into investigating them by preaching explicitly partisan sermons. As part of a conservative movement organizers call “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” some religious leaders will endorse Mitt Romney from the pulpit. Others may refrain from an endorsement but vigorously criticize President Obama. And some will tell their congregations that a good Christian can only vote for a candidate who opposes gay marriage and abortion. Then they’ll send tapes of their sermons to the Internal Revenue Service in the hopes of being audited.

The point of this exercise—now in its fifth year—is twofold. Federal law prohibits tax-exempt organizations from participating in partisan politicking, and conservative activists want to invite an investigation by the IRS so they can challenge the law in court. And if an audit of churches by the IRS provides fuel for the charge that the Obama administration is waging a war on religion, then all the better.

snip//

Supporters of Pulpit Freedom Sunday argue that current law violates religious liberty and free speech by placing restrictions on what religious leaders can say. Jim Garlow, who pastors Skyline Church in California, is one of the most outspoken activists on this issue. He recently appeared on Mike Huckabee’s Fox News show to charge that the law imposes a “muzzle on churches.” Glenn Beck, who has trumpeted the Pulpit Freedom cause in the past few years, held a tele-conference on Tuesday night that was sponsored by CatholicVote.org. According to a Commonweal magazine reporter who was on the call, Beck said there should be no limits on what priests and other religious leaders can say about politics, telling listeners: “If priests can’t speak out on public issues, then what’s the Church good for?”

snip//

Religious leaders have long been active in political movements—and partisan campaigns—but Americans are growing less tolerant of that intermingling of the religious and the political. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has found that more Americans now oppose church involvement in politics than support it, a shift from 15 years ago. In their latest survey, 54 percent of Americans were opposed to churches expressing views on social and political questions—an activity that is perfectly legal, as opposed to partisan endorsements and politicking. And the partisan divide that has emerged on the question is startling. In 1996, 42 percent of Republicans and 44 percent of Democrats said that churches should stay out of politics. Today, the breakdown is 44 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of Democrats, and 58 percent of Independents.

The willingness—and indeed eagerness—of many conservative pastors and priests to flout the law by endorsing Romney may not swing the election in the Republican’s favor. And a court challenge of the law under a potential second Obama term might just devolve into yet another culture war charge that Democratic administrations and activist judges are restricting the rights of religious Americans. But there must be some alternative to the status quo, in which select religious organizations enthusiastically engage in government-subsidized campaigning while happily claiming their tax exemption.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251124474

How dare them fundies stand up for their rights?

peacebird (6,885 posts)
1. The IRS investigations are notoriously slow, I say investigate and remove tax free status nov 7th

Great idea except for when you do that the black churches will pay too, and there goes the long relationship of the democrat party with black folks.

AC_Mem (1,220 posts)
3. i agree

Let them become political, but if that is their choice then they forfeit their tax exempt status.

They really do want to take us back to the 14th century don't they......sigh

Same goes for the liberal churches that you guys praise.

[Mr Mannn]

The IRS won't touch the churches. If the IRS did go after them, black churches would not be exempt either.

[dane]

They do get excited, don't they.

Noticed the more than 141,000 DU posts for the babblelongsister DUmmy.  How does one have time to stay on the internet that long per day (more than 35 posts in 11 years, if she/he/Pat was there from the beginning), and still have a life?  And one must imagine that there are other forums/on line groups that DUmmy was a part of.

They need to get out more.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

They care about this issue deeply...

...when it doesn't benefit them:

xchrom (82,242 posts)

Ohio Early Voting Cutbacks Disenfranchise Minority Voters

http://www.thenation.com/blog/169284/ohio-early-voting-cutbacks-disenfranchise-minority-voters
 
On Election Day 2004, long lines and widespread electoral dysfunctional marred the results of the presidential election in Ohio...

...

In response to the 2008 election results, Ohio Republicans drastically curtailed the early voting period in 2012 from thirty-five to eleven days, with no voting on the Sunday before the election, when African-American churches historically rally their congregants to go to the polls...

<snip>

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021098280

sufrommich (12,344 posts)

Here's the real reason republicans limited 3 day voting to military:

* Reduce or eliminate early voting periods (including the Sunday before elections, which counted for 32 percent of the African-American voter turnout in Florida in 2008)
 
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/03/1096141/--Souls-to-the-polls-Black-churches-push-back-against-voter-suppression
 

Ohio eliminated in-person early voting on Sundays and Florida has eliminated it on the last Sunday before Election Day. It is common for African-American churches to organize “Souls to the Polls” voting drives on Sundays and bus Black voters to election stations in large groups on those days. In Florida, Black and Latino voters made up 57% of those who voted early on the last Sunday before Election Day in 2008. Florida and Texas have also practically outlawed voter registration drives that often work to increase participation in oppressed communities.
 
http://m.fightbacknews.org/2012/3/13/civil-rights-labor-groups-protest-voter-suppression-and-anti-immigrant-laws?device=mobile
 

It's got nothing to do with the military and everything to do with suppressing the minority vote.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021075176

Not one single call for revoking their tax-free status.

No snide indictments of religion.

Only the deepest, sincerest, most heart-felt concern that good people of faith will be denied their political and religious rights of conscience.

[franksolich]

Noticed the more than 141,000 DU posts for the babblelongsister DUmmy.  How does one have time to stay on the internet that long per day (more than 35 posts in 11 years, if she/he/Pat was there from the beginning), and still have a life?  And one must imagine that there are other forums/on line groups that DUmmy was a part of.

They need to get out more.

The babbling sister primitive's a riot.

She was in the middle of an acrimonious divorce in late 2008, and her now ex-husband gave her a Christmas present of which she was so proud the snapped a picture of it and posted it on Skins's island.

It was a wind-up musical jack-in-the-box ("Hail to the Chief") that, instead of a clown, the figure of Barack Milhous popped out.

The Die alte Sau, the "Proud2BLibKansan" primitive, was especially admirative of it.

They didn't see it was obviously a novelty manufactured by someone in the Ku Klux Klan or Aryan Brotherhood or somesuch, as the figure of Barack Milhous was a stereotypical caricature of how people in those groups view blacks, the big lips and all that.

I dunno why the babbling sister primitive divorced her husband; he seemed like a nice guy, always catering to her.

The babbling sister primitive is enormous, and used to sit in front of the computer all day long, with a television (a Christmas gift from her then-husband the Christmas before) perched on a shelf above the computer monitor, so she could watch that and copy-and-paste on Skins's island 24/7/365.  She's so large that when sitting at the chair, her buttocks spill over and down the edge of the seat, nearly touching the floor.

Her then husband kindly put some 4x4 posts in the basment underneath the floor where she sat.

He seemed like a nice guy to me.

[Freeper]

The babbling sister primitive's a riot.

She was in the middle of an acrimonious divorce in late 2008, and her now ex-husband gave her a Christmas present of which she was so proud the snapped a picture of it and posted it on Skins's island.

It was a wind-up musical jack-in-the-box ("Hail to the Chief") that, instead of a clown, the figure of Barack Milhous popped out.

The Die alte Sau, the "Proud2BLibKansan" primitive, was especially admirative of it.

They didn't see it was obviously a novelty manufactured by someone in the Ku Klux Klan or Aryan Brotherhood or somesuch, as the figure of Barack Milhous was a stereotypical caricature of how people in those groups view blacks, the big lips and all that.

I dunno why the babbling sister primitive divorced her husband; he seemed like a nice guy, always catering to her.

The babbling sister primitive is enormous, and used to sit in front of the computer all day long, with a television (a Christmas gift from her then-husband the Christmas before) perched on a shelf above the computer monitor, so she could watch that and copy-and-paste on Skins's island 24/7/365.  She's so large that when sitting at the chair, her buttocks spill over and down the edge of the seat, nearly touching the floor.

Her then husband kindly put some 4x4 posts in the basment underneath the floor where she sat.

He seemed like a nice guy to me.

Hey Frank, Barrack is a clown. 

[franksolich]

Hey Frank, Barrack is a clown. 

There's a lot of material (found by searching "Babylon" in the DUmpster only) about the babbling sister primitive, much of it a riot to read.  These are older threads, as the babbling sister primitive, who moved from Texas to Georgia after her divorce, hasn't been starring in the DUmpster the past couple of years or so. 

Unlike the other copy-and-paste queens on Skins's island, the babbling sister primitive comments--and not only on her own copy-and-paste threads, but at other primitive camp-fires too.

"the babbling sister primitive gets 0bama-in-a-box for Christmas" (December 25, 2008)

http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php/topic,19856.0

[Splashdown]

In the Catholic Church, it's even worse. It's Respect Life Sunday. I heard an anti-abortion homily today.

[Freeper]

In the Catholic Church, it's even worse. It's Respect Life Sunday. I heard an anti-abortion homily today.

Call the feds right away, that is terrorist talk. 

[Jasonw560]

This Sunday, my pastor talked about marriage. Nothing more.

[Freeper]

This Sunday, my pastor talked about marriage. Nothing more.

Sounds like hate speech unless he was including gay marriage as well. 

[jukin]

Like free speech, and just about any other thing, politicizing from the pulpit can only be done by the left. 

[98ZJUSMC]

Great idea except for when you do that the black churches will pay too, and there goes the long relationship of the democrat party with black folks.

 

[98ZJUSMC]

The babbling sister primitive's a riot.

(.......)

The babbling sister primitive is enormous, and used to sit in front of the computer all day long, with a television (a Christmas gift from her then-husband the Christmas before) perched on a shelf above the computer monitor, so she could watch that and copy-and-paste on Skins's island 24/7/365.  She's so large that when sitting at the chair, her buttocks spill over and down the edge of the seat, nearly touching the floor.

Her then husband kindly put some 4x4 posts in the basment underneath the floor where she sat.

He seemed like a nice guy to me.

Sounds like "Gilbert Grape".

[Mr Mannn]

Only socialists and liberals are threatened by people of faith.

[AllosaursRus]

There's a lot of material (found by searching "Babylon" in the DUmpster only) about the babbling sister primitive, much of it a riot to read.  These are older threads, as the babbling sister primitive, who moved from Texas to Georgia after her divorce, hasn't been starring in the DUmpster the past couple of years or so. 

Unlike the other copy-and-paste queens on Skins's island, the babbling sister primitive comments--and not only on her own copy-and-paste threads, but at other primitive camp-fires too.

"the babbling sister primitive gets 0bama-in-a-box for Christmas" (December 25, 2008)

http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php/topic,19856.0

Well Coach, It's a helluva lot better than bein' in "her" box! I wouldn't wish that on Stinky!

[MrsSmith]

It's all enough to make you wonder how on earth the United States managed to survive the first 150+ years of existance when speech from the pulpit was not controlled through threat of more taxes.   

[BlueStateSaint]

This Sunday, my pastor talked about marriage. Nothing more.

Same here.  'Course, it was only the second time in 31 years that our pastor has been a priest, that he was actually marrying two people during Mass (one of our sopranos who's a widow, who married a widower), so that might have had something to do with it.

[DefiantSix]

Only socialists and liberals are threatened by people of faith.

Redundant much? 

[Skul]

Soooooo, how many churches got their tax exempt status pulled today? 
Nice move, DUmpmonkeys. You lose. 

[Zeus]

Our Pastor often asks the congregation to earnestly question the morality and if it's compassionate to attempt to address todays societal troubles all the while leaving it up to our grandchildren to pay the bills.

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

This Sunday, my pastor talked about marriage. Nothing more.

Yes. our Priest talked about that at Mass yesterday!

[redwhit]

This Sunday, my pastor talked about marriage. Nothing more.

OMG mine did that and added respect for life from conception to natural death!

Never realized my parish was so radical.

 

[Splashdown]

An interesting thought from Cardinal Francis George of Chicago. He saw the writing on the wall?

In 2010, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago outlined the degree to which he believed religious freedoms (in the United States and other Western societies) were endangered. After the passage of legislation that enabled Civil Unions in Illinois, his eminence stated:

I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.

In February of 2012, Cardinal George reflected on the seriousness of the Obama administration’s health-care mandate:

At the present moment, Catholics in this country are facing challenges to our institutional existence and our mission that we thought would never arise here. … The laws that used to protect us are now being used to weaken and destroy us, and this quite deliberately.[ii]

Link

[FlaGator]

Like free speech, and just about any other thing, politicizing from the pulpit can only be done by the left. 

Free speech for me but not for thee