The beheading of John the Baptist for preaching against Herod’s immorality seems to be an extreme and antiquated story. But incidents of government penalties on pastors who speak out on moral issues of the day are getting closer to home all the time. Just last week, LifeSiteNews reported that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) threatened to “revoke[] the charitable status of Kings Glory Fellowship (KGF), a Christian church in Calgary.  …’The members of the Board of Directors espouse strong negative views about sensitive and controversial issues, which may also be viewed as political, such as abortion, homosexuality, divorce, etc.,’ wrote CRA agent Dian Prodanov in an October 29th letter.”  This is proof that European style censorship of pastors like the arrest and conviction of Ake Green in Sweden has crossed the Atlantic and is now in our own backyard.

Losing tax exemption is certainly not beheading (or even arrest), but the effort to silence preachers who express the biblical view on moral issues is the same.  These cases reflect the peculiar idea that churches have no business speaking out on abortion and homosexual behavior because those are political subjects.  In other words, the Church should stay out of politics.  But these are moral issues that the church – the moral conscience of the nation – has the right and duty to weigh in on.

What’s really going on is government has invaded the realm of the Church by politicizing moral questions.  Pastors must continue to assert the biblical perspective on moral issues and be alert for any encroachment on the right to do so.  Otherwise, the fate of John the Baptist starts looking less and less like a thing of the past.

In his State of the Union Address last week, President Obama took the Supreme Court to task for its recent ruling allowing corporations to speak out about candidates for election.  What he didn’t say was that the company the Court ruled for in the case was a small to mid-size non-profit.

Citizens United sued the Federal Election Commission (FEC) because it prohibited corporations from endorsing or opposing candidates for office within 90 days prior to an election.  The non-profit group filed the lawsuit because it was prohibited from offering Hillary: The Movie as a pay-per-view option on cable networks.  The Supreme said the FEC rules violate the free speech rights of corporations and are unconstitutional:  “By suppressing the speech of manifold corporations, both for-profit and nonprofit, the Government prevents their voices and viewpoints from reaching the public and advising voters on which persons or entities are hostile to their interests.”  This is exactly what the IRS has been doing to pastors since 1954 with the Johnson Amendment.  That amendment prohibits non-profit charitable organizations – including churches – from encouraging their members to vote for or against a candidate based on church teaching.  ADF has organized a Pulpit Initiative for the past two years in an effort to bring attention to this unconstitutional law, and challenge it in court.

So far, the IRS has not attempted to enforce the rule against any of the 85 pastors that have participated.  But if they do, Citizens United gives Churches a great weapon.  It will be very difficult for the IRS to argue that corporations have a free speech right to endorse or oppose candidates, but churches don’t.