What the IRS did here is unconstitutional.  It is always outrageous when the coercive powers of government are used for political intimidation.  And I am glad that the IRS has apologized for its actions.  But this story illustrates the problem when we allow government agencies and officials to exercise unfettered power to enforce vague and ambiguous laws.

The IRS has in fact been exercising that kind of power since 1954 with the Johnson Amendment that allows it to censor a pastor’s sermon from the pulpit.  The Johnson Amendment prohibits “participating in or intervening in” a political campaign “on behalf of or in opposition to a candidate for public office.”  The IRS has interpreted this over the years to say that churches cannot “directly or indirectly” participate in a campaign.  But there is no definition of what it means to “indirectly” participate in a campaign.  The IRS tells churches that it must consider “all the facts and circumstances” to determine when a church has violated the Johnson Amendment.  Basically, this means that it won’t tell churches with precision what speech violates the Johnson Amendment and instead will wait and evaluate everything after the fact to then determine if the church has violated the law.  The IRS even went so far as to say that a church could violate the Johnson Amendment by the use of “code words” where it doesn’t even have to name a candidate specifically but if it speaks in a certain way that the IRS believes supports or opposes a candidate, then that could violate the law.

The point here is that the IRS enforcement of the Johnson Amendment is a situation particularly susceptible to abuse of power.  The IRS is unaccountable for who it investigates, when it investigates, or even whether it investigates violations of the Johnson Amendment.  It issues vague pronouncements designed to intimidate churches into silence out of fear of an IRS audit or penalties.  The IRS’ recent apology demonstrates that it has broad, coercive, and unconstitutional powers that can be used improperly to chill speech and intimidate the exercise of constitutional rights.  But that’s what the IRS has been doing with the Johnson Amendment since 1954. The situation is even worse when considering the fact that the Johnson Amendment was passed in the first place to silence political opponents of Senator Lyndon Johnson.

The Johnson Amendment is an unconstitutional restriction on a pastor’s right to speak freely from the pulpit and it allows the IRS to utilize intimidation to enforce the law and chill constitutionally protected speech.  Alliance Defending Freedom has been fighting the Johnson Amendment and its unconstitutional effects on churches and pastors.  That’s why we started Pulpit Freedom Sunday in 2008.  If you are a pastor, sign up to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday on June 9, 2013.  This year’s Pulpit Freedom Sunday is about marriage, but it remains about the broader principle that no IRS official should ever tell a pastor what he can or cannot say from the pulpit.

The recent IRS apology is a beginning.  But the IRS should also apologize for 59 years of intimidation of pastors and churches.  It’s time to end the Johnson Amendment’s regime of censorship.

Legally speaking, this complaint has no merit and should be summarily dismissed.  As I detailed in an earlier blog, the IRS is not following a policy of non-enforcement.  Churches must remember that the IRS has not given up on auditing churches or enforcing the Johnson Amendment.

The lawsuit also has an insurmoutable legal hurdle in its way.  In order to bring a lawsuit against the federal government, a plaintiff must prove that it will be harmed in a specific and concrete way that is different from the harm experienced generally by the public at large.  It will be difficult, if not impossible, for FFRF to prove that it is being harmed by the IRS’ delay in enforcing the Johnson Amendment.

This lawsuit is really about two things.  First, it is about generating publicity for Freedom From Religion Foundation.  A quick lawsuit, even if it gets dismissed at a later point, can earn some headlines.  But secondly, this lawsuit is about fostering FFRF’s radical agenda.  FFRF, a group of radical separationist atheists, envisions a future where the tax code is used against churches and pastors to punish them for speaking out on issues of candidates and elections.  It wants to see pulpit police in the churches of America, and fines and penalties meted out if a pastor crosses whetever line the government chooses to draw.  Ultimately, FFRF does not want people of faith to have a voice in the public square.  It wantswhat its name says – freedom from religion.  And that is where its agenda is at odds with the fundamental rights of America’s churches and pastors.

I expect for this lawsuit to be dismissed and hope to be able to bring you news of that dismissal.  But do not be fooled, groups like FFRF will not stop and will continue to push their radical agenda of silencing churches and pastors.  America’s churches are a crucial component to the survival of our country.  The voice of the church must be free to impact culture and society and as the liberty of the church is restricted, society and culture suffers and declines.  That’s why Alliance Defending Freedom created the Church Project – to defend the right of the Church to be the Church.  If your church’s rights are threatened or violated, please contact us so our attorneys can help.

Click to view a full list of the participating churches.

Townhall.com Column by Erik Stanley

In the wake of the most successful Pulpit Freedom Sunday to date, a look at opponents who have commented publicly about the event in recent days shows that they are still attacking it for something it’s clearly not. In other words, the arguments against Pulpit Freedom Sunday fail because the premise for those arguments is all wrong.

This year, as part of the event, nearly 1,600 pastors nationwide preached sermons that analyzed the positions of various political candidates—an exercise in free speech that violates a flawed Internal Revenue Service rule known as the Johnson Amendment. The goal is to create a court case that will challenge the constitutionality of the rule in court.

Read the rest of the article at Townhall.com

Jim Garlow explains how pulpit freedom was lost in 1954. Find out how you can exercise your constitutional rights to reclaim freedom in the pulpit.

There is still time to sign up – If you are a pastor, go to www.pulpitfreedom.org and sign up to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday on October 7. If you can’t participate on Oct. 7th you can participate on any other Sunday in October.

If you are a pastor, go to www.pulpitfreedom.org and sign up to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday on October 7.

Admittedly, it can be confusing for churches and pastors to know what is allowed during an election season.  Much of this confusion stems from the vagueness of the tax code and the accompanying IRS regulations. To help, Alliance Defending Freedom has created many resources for you to utilize this election season.

Guidelines for Churches and Pastors

You’ll find a host of resources on www.speakupmovement.org/church that will clearly spell out what churches and pastors can and cannot do. One popular resource is the Guidelines for “Political Activities” by Churches and Pastors. These guidelines represent the current IRS law regarding what churches and pastors can do during elections. There is a helpful chart included that covers a broad range of topics, such as contributions to candidates and voter education.

Another helpful resource is the Guidelines for Distribution of Voter Guides by Churches. This resource outlines the requirements for distributing voter guides in your church. You will also find a helpful explanation for how to determine what voter guides are appropriate for distribution.

These resources should help you make sense of the law and regulations surrounding elections. However, if you still have questions, please contact us directly. Our goal at Alliance Defending Freedom is to ensure that no church is silent during this election season simply because they don’t fully understand what they can do or are intimidated by misinformation.

Pulpit Freedom Sunday

Pulpit Freedom Sunday is all about ensuring that pastors determine what is said from their pulpits, and not the IRS or groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The goal of Pulpit Freedom Sunday is to have the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional.  The Johnson Amendment (the last sentence of section 501(c)(3) of the tax code) has proven to be a weapon of censorship and intimidation of churches during election seasons.  In fact, groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State frequently send letters to pastors trying to intimidate them into silence on the biblical issues surrounding elections. But we believe pastors and church leadership should determine what’s said from the pulpit, not the government or other organizations outside of the church.

On Pulpit Freedom Sunday, October 7, 2012, hundreds of pastors will stand together and preach a sermon that evaluates the candidates running for office in light of Scripture and Church doctrine.  Please go to www.pulpitfreedom.org and sign up to join this growing movement of bold pastors. If you are a pastor and you cannot participate on October 7, then pick a Sunday as close to that date as you can, but before the election. You can still sign up to participate and make your voice heard. Pulpit freedom is vital and this project is an important means of ensuring that much of the confusion and intimidation confronting churches during elections is removed.

It is our hope that these resources, and the many others you’ll find on www.speakupmovement.org/church, will help you as a pastor fulfill your biblical calling to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (2 Tim. 4:2). This calling extends even during election cycles, as biblical Truth does not take a holiday during a political campaign. Now, more than ever, the voice of America’s churches must be heard.

Well, for starters, Mr. Lorenzetti’s statements follow a long pattern by the IRS of intimidating pastors and churches into silence on the issues surrounding candidates and elections.  The Johnson Amendment operates as a direct restriction on the speech of pastors and churches.  There is no denying this fact.  And there is no denying the fact that the Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional.  It is never permissible to allow a government agency the power to punish a church for something its pastor says from the pulpit.  Where did America’s churches ever get the idea that it was okay to invite IRS officials into the process of sermon preparation and allow them to wield the power of censorship over what your pastor says from the pulpit?  Such a regime is not okay, and indeed, it is unconstitutional.

That’s why ADF started Pulpit Freedom Sunday in 2008 – to restore a pastor’s right to speak freely from the pulpit and to remove the pen of censorship from the hand of government officials.  Because we believe that the Constitution protects the right of a pastor to speak freely from the pulpit and that government should hold no sway over a pastor’s sermon preparation or delivery.  It is for every pastor and church to decide for themselves what is said from their own pulpit.

Pulpit Freedom Sunday is October 7, 2012.  If you are a pastor, please sign up to participate to exercise your constitutional rights on that day together with hundreds of other pastors  from across the country.  If the IRS wants to continue to enforce the Johnson Amendment against pastors and churches, then it will continue to take a sustained and united effort to remind the IRS of the constitutional rights of pastors and churches.  If you are not a pastor, please send every pastor you know to www.pulpitfreedom.org to learn more and to sign up to participate on October 7, 2012.

But away from the basketball court, some folks in Lexington refuse to acknowledge that religious freedom ranks No. 1 in the Bill of Rights.

Some folks like the local Gay & Lesbian Services Organization (GLSO).  If they get their way, religious freedom will be dealt a huge defeat like those served on so many of the Wildcats’ basketball opponents.

Alleging “discrimination,” GLSO is demanding the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission slap a technical foul on the Christian-owned business Hands On Originals.

Blaine Adamson, co-owner of Hands On Originals shirt shop, declined GLSO’s request to print t-shirts for a “pride” parade celebrating homosexual behavior.  The co-owners of Hands On Originals sincerely believe in the inspired Word of God, and they strive to live by its commands in their personal and public lives.  They disagree with the message served by these “pride” parades, and they exercised their right to be obedient to God.

In retaliation, GLSO is urging large customers of Hands On Originals – including the University of Kentucky – to boycott the shirt shop, which could be forced to lay off employees if business revenue drops substantially.

Blaine Adamson joins a growing list of Christian business owners facing legal attack in the clash between the free exercise of religion – the first liberty affirmed in the U.S. Constitution – and the homosexual legal agenda.  The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and our allies have successfully defended many of them, but other costly legal battles rage on.  In New Mexico, Elaine Huguenin awaits appeal of a similar “discrimination” charge – for declining to photograph a same-sex “commitment ceremony.”  If convicted, she may have to close her photography business.

This issue brings two vitally important questions into play for believers.  How should the Body of Christ respond to these predatory assaults on religious liberty?  And, are pastors free to scripturally equip their congregations on how to respond to attacks on religious freedom?

It’s crucial for Christians to understand the serious legal risks they face in the public square as they strive to uphold their biblical beliefs.  Pastors also need to understand the attacks against their congregants and how to lead in a time of hostility toward religious freedom.

Pastors can take an important step in leadership by participating in the ADF Pulpit Freedom Sunday October 7^th when hundreds of pastors will preach the full counsel of scripture on the issue of candidates and the election to equip their congregations and to counter a challenge to their own free speech.

They do so knowing Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) will bluster and complain.  This radical group is threatening pastors with intimidating letters warning them to refrain from speaking on some of the moral issues which will help their congregations.

This bullying has been happening since Congress hastily approved the “Johnson Amendment” in 1954.  The act modified the Internal Revenue Service tax code and overturned 178 years of free speech for America’s pastors, who now risk loss of tax exemptions for applying scripture or church teaching to the issue of candidates and elections.

For instance, if Blaine Adamson’s pastor urges the congregation to vote for political candidates who will uphold religious liberty, AU will file a “complaint” (really just a tattle-tale letter) with the Internal Revenue Service demanding the church lose its tax exemption.

The Alliance Defense Fund and our allies are protecting churches willing to courageously challenge this unjust tax law.  While we’re not encouraging pastors to become political commentators, we are urging them to determine the content of sermons on their own.  For too long, pastors self-censored their messages and essentially enabled the IRS to determine what can and can’t be said in the pulpits of America.

Pulpit Freedom Sunday pastors are forwarding recordings of their sermons to the IRS in hopes of drawing investigations.  When IRS officials attempt to whistle a church for a flagrant foul, ADF will sue the IRS in an attempt to overturn the Johnson Amendment.  Our goal is to regain complete freedom for America’s churches.

Please pray for victory in the battles for religious freedom in Lexington, in New Mexico, and across America.  Pray for free speech for our pastors

It is no secret that ADF believes the Johnson Amendment is blatantly unconstitutional.  It violates the First Amendment in numerous ways.  It was also passed hastily with no forethought given to its effect on the constitutional rights of churches and pastors.  If you are interested, one scholar has done an in-depth study of the history of the Johnson Amendment and its dubious beginnings. This scholar concluded that the Johnson Amendment had nothing to do with the so-called “separation of church and state” and was not intended to enforce any perceived proper role of the church in relation to politics.  Rather, the Johnson Amendment was a bill passed to silence Johnson’s political opponents who were hurting his reelection chances.

It would be a great day for America’s clergy if Congress were to repeal the Johnson Amendment.  The bill, H.R. 3600 has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee and is pending further action.

Pastors should capitalize on this momentum by doing two things.  First, remain informed of the progress of H.R. 3600.  We will do our best to keep you updated on its status.  Second, sign up to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday to be held on October 7, 2012.  If you are not a pastor, send every pastor you know to www.pulpitfreedom.org and encourage them to sign up to stand together with hundreds of other pastors who are exercising their constitutional rights to speak freely from their pulpits.  This year’s Pulpit Freedom Sunday promises to be the biggest yet.  Please sign up now to participate.

This misunderstanding has been propagated in different ways through the years in movements, booklets, and websites. The basic argument is that churches are free and if they don’t incorporate or ask for tax exemption from the government, then the IRS can’t regulate them or force them to pay income taxes (or do anything else for that matter).

This view is wrong under the law as it exists today. But in order to understand this, we need to take a few steps back. Churches are unique in that they enjoy a special status under the tax code. Normally, to be considered exempt from income taxes, an organization must apply for an exemption from the IRS and demonstrate that it meets the requirements to be considered one of the exempt categories of section 501(c) of the tax code. Every organization that does not fall within one of the exempt categories of section 501(c) of the tax code is considered taxable.

But churches are different. Under section 508(c)(1)(A) of the tax code, churches are exempt from applying to the IRS for tax exempt status. Thus, churches are automatically exempt from income taxes under the federal tax code without first applying to the IRS for recognition of exempt status.

This is where the misunderstanding comes in. Some think that this unique status of churches under the tax code means that churches are not regulated by the tax code at all.  This view is wrong.  The bottom line is that whether or not a church applies to the IRS for recognition of tax exempt status or chooses not to do so, they are still subject to the tax code.

Cases have dealt with this issue. In Taylor v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the United States Tax Court agreed that, under section 508(c)(1) of the tax code churches do not have to apply for tax exempt status and are considered automatically exempt. But the court also stated, “Nothing in section 508(c)(1) relieves a church from having to meet the requirements of section 501(c)(3).”  Basically what the Taylor court was saying is that churches are still subject to the restrictions in section 501(c)(3) of the tax code even if they never apply to the IRS for recognition of tax exempt status.

In a similar case called Universal Life Church v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the Tax Court stated:

Section 508(c) exempts various organizations, including churches from the notification requirements of section 508(a). Thus while most organizations claiming tax exempt status under section 501(c)(3) must inform the Commissioner of their application for exempt status… churches need not make such a notification.

Despite this, the Tax Court went on to hold that this unique status does not prevent the Commissioner of the IRS from auditing a church.

The upshot of these cases is that even though churches are not required to apply for a tax exemption from the IRS, churches are still subject to the restrictions in section 501(c)(3) of the tax code. That means all churches are required to abide by 501(c)(3).  And if you think about this logically, it makes sense.  The way the federal tax code works is to begin from the assumption that all organizations are taxable unless they meet an exemption from taxation specified in the tax code.  Thus, for a church to be considered exempt from taxation, it must meet a specific exemption under section 501(c) of the tax code.  The specific exemption that churches fall under is section 501(c)(3).

And this is where the problem arises because the restrictions on churches in 501(c)(3) are unconstitutional. The passage of the Johnson Amendment in 1954 added a restriction to 501(c)(3) that allows the IRS to censor a pastor’s sermon from the pulpit.  That’s what Pulpit Freedom Sunday is intended to address. It doesn’t help for churches to hide their heads in the sand and pretend like the tax code doesn’t apply to them. Instead, churches should stand and boldly confront the unconstitutional restriction and regain the right of pastors to speak freely from their pulpits without any restriction.  If you are a pastor, visit our website and sign up to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday.

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