For some time now, the IRS has not been auditing churches.  As I explained in more detail in this post, the IRS’ decision to “suspend” church audits stems from a 2009 federal court decision finding the IRS’ regulations on church audits to be unlawful.  Since that decision, the IRS, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, has not been auditing any churches.  It has said since 2009 that it is preparing new regulations that will enable it to begin auditing churches again, but we have not seen those regulations finalized.

However, at a recent tax conference, Treasury Attorney-Advisor Ruth Madrigal said that the IRS’ long-awaited rules on church audits are “close” to being finalized.  So what does this mean for churches?

What this means is that once the IRS’ regulations on auditing churches are finalized, then it is logical to assume that the IRS will begin auditing churches again.  Whether this means that the IRS will audit churches that participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday remains to be seen.  We will have to closely watch the IRS’ actions once the church audit rules are finalized.

But ultimately, the constitutional rights of pastors and churches do not turn on whether the IRS decides to audit churches.  Alliance Defending Freedom has said for years that the Johnson Amendment in section 501(c)(3) of the tax code is unconstitutional.  If the IRS audits and penalizes churches for something it believes violates the Johnson Amendment, then Alliance Defending Freedom stands ready to defend the constitutional rights of America’s pastors to speak biblical truth uncensored by the IRS.

For now, we will continue to monitor the situation and will make you aware of any changes the IRS proposes.  As we say here at Alliance Defending Freedom, “You watch your flock, and we’ll watch the horizon.”  And if you have not yet signed up to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday, please do so today.  This year, Pulpit Freedom Sunday is all about marriage, and America desperately needs to hear what God says about marriage at this crucial time.  Signing up for Pulpit Freedom Sunday is easy and we hope to see thousands of pastors standing united on June 9, 2013, preaching biblical truth about marriage.  Will you be one of those pastors?  Please sign up today.

You may be tempted to think if marriage is redefined to include same-sex couples, then the whole issue may just go away and the two sides can come to some sort of grudging peace.  Everyone can get on with their lives, right?  Well, not so fast. One of the things that is often overlooked in the debate over marriage is the effect redefining marriage will have on religious freedom.

In short, redefining marriage to include same-sex couples poses a significant threat to religious freedom.  Examples abound to illustrate this fact. 

In New Mexico, a Christian photographer was fined several thousand dollars after she politely declined to use her artistic talents to photograph a same-sex “commitment ceremony”.

Attempts have been made in Vermont, Illinois, and New Jersey, just to name a few states, to force Christian businesses to open their properties for same-sex wedding ceremonies, in opposition to their sincere religious beliefs.

A city in Kansas attempted to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance that would have forced churches to open their facilities for same-sex weddings regardless of their religious beliefs to the contrary.

A Christian-owned business in Kentucky was accused of unlawful discrimination when it abided by its faith and declined to print t-shirts for a local “pride festival” that celebrates homosexual behavior and same-sex relationships.

These examples illustrate the effect that redefining marriage has on religious freedom.  But the “marriage” issue is more than just about marriage.  The push for same-sex “marriage” is really a broader push to normalize homosexual behavior in society, which also has a negative effect on religious freedom.

The latest example of this is the pressure on the Boy Scouts of America organization to change its membership policy to include individuals who advocate or engage in homosexual behavior.  This may not seem like a true threat to religious freedom, but over 70 percent of chartering organizations for Boy Scout troops are religious organizations.  These churches will face a difficult choice if the Boy Scouts’ leadership changes its policy.  Do the churches abide by their religious beliefs and cease being a chartering organization? 

These kinds of choices are faced by Christians across America with increasing frequency.  We must not forget the simple fact that religious freedom is the casualty of a society that embraces same-sex “marriage” and the normalization of homosexual behavior.

But we are not powerless.  The voice of the church is needed now more than ever.  In this moment, there are at least two things you and your church can do:

            1.  Sign up to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday on June 9, 2013.  On that day, pastors across America will stand together and preach sermons about what Scripture says regarding God’s design for marriage and sexual behavior.  Pastors have traditionally led the way in speaking to our culture at times when we have been confronted with momentous questions.  It was pastors who spoke out against slavery, child labor, and for civil rights and women’s suffrage.  Pastors have a lot to say about marriage – the first institution that God created.  And society needs to hear what the church has to say.

            2.         Sign the petition to encourage the Boy Scouts of America to stand strong and resist pressure to change its membership policy.  If your church is a chartering organization for a Boy Scout troop, download our sample policy you can adopt to prepare your church in the event the Boy Scouts do change membership requirements.

Now is not the time for America’s churches to be silent.  Because together we can speak up to protect religious freedom.

By Rory Gray, Alliance Defending Freedom Litigation Counsel

Religious liberty received an early Christmas present a few weeks back when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc. v. City of Warren.  The opinion gives a new take on what is now a familiar legal story.  The City of Warren, Michigan put up a holiday display in its civic center that included a smorgasbord of nonreligious items, including ribbons, ornaments, reindeer, wreaths, elves, gift boxes, etc., and one religious one—a nativity scene.  True to form, the Grinch more commonly known as the Freedom from Religion Foundation (“FFRF”) turned up to complain that the nativity scene violated the Establishment Clause.  But the city mayor stuck to his guns and refused to remove it.  So FFRF tried a different tack; it submitted a large sandwich-board sign for inclusion in the display that, among other festive gems, proclaimed that:

There are no gods,
no devils, no angels,
No heaven or hell.
There is only our natural world,
Religion is but
Myth and superstition
That hardens hearts
And enslaves minds.

Clearly recognizing FFRF’s sign for what it was, a venomous attack on religion designed to scuttle the holiday display altogether, the city mayor refused to include it.  FFRF then filed a lawsuit.  The district court ultimately rejected FFRF’s arguments and so did the Sixth Circuit.

In an excellent opinion written by Judge Sutton, the Sixth Circuit explained that a “nativity scene, when accompanied by [a] collection of secular and seasonal symbols, does not amount to an establishment of religion or for that matter an impermissible endorsement of it.”    Indeed, this argument seems rather silly in light of the fact that the Supreme Court has proclaimed that “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a supreme Being” and Congress has enacted “a law devoted to spiritual matters … called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, all without violating the Establishment Clause.”

The clear lesson of this story is that “when government speaks for itself,” “strict neutrality” is not required.  Otherwise, the postal service couldn’t add a religious Christmas stamp without designing a nonreligious counterpart, “Veterans’ Day would lead to Pacifism Day, the Fourth of July to Non-Patriots Day, and so on.”  That is not the law.  Government is free to keep items, like FFRF’s sign, out of its holiday display and may “choose to add a nativity scene (so long as it did not violate the Establishment Clause)” or “add an angel,” while “keep[ing] out a devil.”  “[A]ccountability” for these choices is “through the democratic process.”

So if your town sponsors a holiday display next December, advocate for a nativity scene to be included.  Each one is an important reminder that Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas, not Rudolph however charming his bright nose.  And as an added benefit, nativity scenes in public displays visibly deny the strict “separation of church and state,” which is a mirage built of groups like FFRF’s wishful thinking, not the First Amendment’s text.

By Rory Gray, Alliance Defending Freedom Litigation Counsel

As Pope Benedict XVI retires from public life, it is time to pay tribute to his contributions as one of the greatest champions of religious freedom in our age.  Pope Benedict XVI, throughout his time in office, proclaimed loudly what few in our time have dared to speak:  “Christians are the religious group which suffers most from persecution on account of its faith.”  And he refused to accept the status quo, characterizing it as “unacceptable,” “an insult to God and to human dignity; furthermore, it is a threat to security and peace, and an obstacle to the achievement of authentic and integral human development.”  Few religious leaders have been so bold.  But Pope Benedict XVI spoke out in the face of “the deliberate promotion of religious indifference or practical atheism on the part of many countries.”  He clearly proclaimed that efforts to “curtail the proclamation of [religious] truths, whether constricting it within the limits of a merely scientific rationality, or suppressing it in the name of political power or majority rule, … represent a threat not just to Christian faith, but also to humanity itself and to the deepest truth about our being and ultimate vocation, our relationship to God.”

For Pope Benedict XVI harbored no doubts that “the most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion” was under attack.  He spoke out against efforts to deny religious persons “the right of conscientious objection” and the “worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.”  And he explained that the “Church has a critical role to play in countering cultural currents which, on the basis of an extreme individualism, seek to promote notions of freedom detached from moral truth.”  Pope Benedict XVI clearly saw religious freedom as “an essential good” and he declared eloquently that “each person must be able freely to exercise the right to profess and manifest, individually or in community, his or her own religion or faith, in public and in private, in teaching, in practice, in publications, in worship and in ritual observances.”

To respect this basic “[h]uman right[],” Pope Benedict XVI declared that civil authorities must “give[] space to viewpoints inspired by a religious vision in all its dimensions, including ritual, worship, education, dissemination of information and the freedom to profess and choose religion.”  Because, as he explained, “[it] is inconceivable … that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves—their faith—in order to be active citizens.  It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights.”  For “[t]he right to religious freedom is rooted in the very dignity of the human person, whose transcendent nature must not be ignored or overlooked.”  Thus, as Pope Benedict XVI made clear, when “religious freedom is acknowledged, the dignity of the human person is respected at its root.”  “[T]he moral legitimacy of every social and legal norm” therefore depends upon respect for “the right to life and the right to religious freedom.”

Expressions of sincere thanks and appreciation for Pope Benedict XVI’s leadership in the religious freedom arena are both necessary and appropriate.  But perhaps the best tribute to Pope Benedict XVI’s public ministry is to heed his moving words describing religious freedom as “an essential element of a constitutional state,” a right that “cannot be denied without at the same time encroaching on all fundamental rights and freedoms, since it is their synthesis and keystone.  It is the litmus test for the respect of all the other human rights.”  Alliance Defending Freedom works every day to uphold religious freedom in all of its forms.  And we invite you to join us in this effort, so valiantly championed by Pope Benedict XVI.

Pastor Olden Thornton discusses the attacks on pastors when following God’s direction and standing up for Biblical Truths.

Watch & Listen >> http://alln.cc/XNcYfS
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