One of my colleagues was reading a law review article the other day from former Judge Mike McConnell and ran across an interesting notation about pastors speaking in favor of candidates from their pulpits even during the days immediately following the ratification of the United States Constitution.  James Madison, who is known as one of the architects of the Constitution, was seeking a seat in the very first House of Representatives in 1789.  Madison was initially opposed to an amendment to the Constitution protecting the rights of religious freedom and conscience but, as Judge McConnell wrote in his law review article:

[W]hen he [Madison] initiated his candidacy for Congress, he discovered that his Baptist constituents were prepared to throw their support to his opponent, James Monroe. On advice of his political adviser, George Nicholas, Madison contacted Baptist leaders and proclaimed his support for “the most satisfactory provisions for all essential rights, particularly the rights of Conscience in the fullest latitude.” He then championed a constitutional provision for religious liberty as a campaign issue. The Baptist leaders responded by giving him their electoral support, which contributed to his narrow margin of victory. A letter to Madison contains an interesting eyewitness account of a gathering at the Blue Run Baptist Church, at which the minister, the Reverend George Eve, “took a very Spirited and decided Part in your favour” and “Spoke Long” on the subject of Madison’s contributions to religious freedom. (McConnell, The Origins and Historical Understanding of Free Exercise of Religion, 103 Harvard Law Review 1409, 1477 (1990)).

You can read Mr. Johnson’s actual letter to James Madison online here.  I have a couple of thoughts in response to this.  First, I find it interesting to note that it was pastors who provided the impetus, at least in part, for the First Amendment, and specifically the protection of religious freedom.  Pastors have always been at the forefront of the great social and moral issues facing America and this is just one more example.

Second, as McConnell notes, it was only after pastors pressured Madison that he switched his position to support a provision that would later become the First Amendment.  This little vignette from American history demonstrates just how much of an impact pastors can have on American life.  And this is just one story in a mountain of historical evidence of the positive impact pastors have had on American history.

Finally, it seems to me that this story illustrates a powerful rebuttal to those who oppose the ADF Pulpit Initiative by arguing that allowing pastors to participate in politics will result in corruption of the church.  The Johnson Amendment was enacted in 1954.  There is at least a 166 year track record from the time of the ratification of the Constitution to the adoption of the Johnson Amendment.  The weight of history demonstrates that the clergy ably handled their important role in American electoral politics for those 166 years.  With this historical record, the charge that allowing pastors to speak freely from their pulpits would corrupt the church rings hollow.

Pastors have had an enormous influence on American history.  That influence has been unjustly removed by an unconstitutional law that had nothing to do with pastors in the first place.  It’s time to right the ship and restore the pastors’ rightful place in American life.  That’s what the Pulpit Initiative is all about.

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Pastor Paul Blair recently spoke at an ADF event about his participation in ADF’s Pulpit Initiative.  We have posted video of his remarks on our website.  Pastor Blair is pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, and was one of the 33 courageous pastors who stood boldly and spoke Biblical truth from his pulpit about the 2008 elections and the candidates running for office during that election.  As Pastor Blair explained about his participation, he and other pastors around the country “all joined together and we stood in our pulpits and we opened the pages of Scripture and we preached about the issues that were at hand that would be affected by the elections of 2008.”  Pastor Blair then took a copy of his sermon and sent it to the IRS.  He has not heard anything from the IRS yet but says he is unafraid because he knows ADF has his back.

Pastor Blair is also unafraid because he knows “we are right constitutionally and we are certainly right Biblically.”  Constitutionally speaking, the Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional.  It was when it was passed and it is now.  Read our white paper on why the Johnson Amendment unconstitutionally infringes the rights of pastors and churches.

In his remarks, Pastor Blair issued a call to America’s pastors.  He said, “We need another generation of God-fearing patriot pastors to stand up today if America is going to be saved.”  Will you be one of those pastors?  Take the step, follow Pastor Blair and others like him and sign up for the Pulpit Initiative.

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Many of you know by now that ADF’s Pulpit Initiative is a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the Johnson Amendment.  I had the pleasure of speaking recently to some West Virginia attorneys at a CLE presentation where I spoke about the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Citizens United v. FEC and what impact that case may have on the constitutionality of the Johnson Amendment (more to come on that in later posts).  As part of the presentation, I spoke on the history of the Johnson Amendment and how Lyndon Johnson got his amendment to the tax code passed with no legislative analysis, no committee hearings, and no debate.  After the presentation, a professor at a local university told me that in West Virginia, what Johnson did with his amendment to the tax code would have been called a “fat opossum” because it snuck through under cover of darkness.  That’s a perfect tag line for the Johnson Amendment.

James D. Davidson, a professor at Purdue wrote an article in the Review of Religious Research (excerpt here) that should be required reading for all pastors.  In his article, he explores the political realities of the 1954 U.S. Senate election in Texas that led to the adoption of the Johnson Amendment.  After reviewing the legislative and political history of the Johnson Amendment, Davidson concludes:

The ban on electioneering has nothing to do with the First Amendment or Jeffersonian principles of separation of church and state.

Davidson is right.  He details in the article how Johnson was motivated to propose his amendment to the tax code as a means of silencing two powerful secular non-profit organizations (Facts Forum and the Committee for Constitutional Government) that were opposing his candidacy for the U.S. Senate because they believed he was soft on communism.  Davidson states:

The ban on electioneering is not rooted in constitutional provisions for separation of church and state.  It actually goes back to 1954 when Congress was revising the tax code, anti-communism was in full bloom, and elections were taking place in Texas.  In this highly-charged political environment, Lyndon Johnson introduced an amendment banning section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt orgaizations from participating in “any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.”  . . .  Johnson was not trying to address any constitutional issue related to separation of curch and state; and he did not offer the amendment because of anything that churches had done.  Churches were not banned from endorsing candidates because they are religious organizations; they were banned because they have the same tax-exempt status as Facts Forum and the Committee for Constitutional Government, the right-wing organizations that Johnson was really after.

The Johnson Amendment is a big fat opposum.  It was a bill that got inserted into the tax code through back-room deals made by a powerful Senator who wanted to be able to seek reelection at any cost and, in the process, trampling freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion.  We have grown up with a generation of chuch-goers that believe it is illegal for their pastor to address candidates and elections in light of Scripture or church doctrine when there is no valid justification for believing that.

The Johnson Amendment was unconstutional when it was passed and it is unconstitutional now.  It’s high time that we shined the light of the Constitution on this particular fat opposum.

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Kevin Theriot and I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of hundreds of pastors gathered together in Washington D.C. last week for the Family Research Council’s Watchmen on the Wall conference.  The title of the event comes from Isaiah 62:6: ”I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest.”  Family Research Council describes its Watchmen on the Wall ministry in the following terms:

We believe that a Watchman Pastor is called to do the following:

Watch what is going on in the culture.

Pray for the wisdom to engage biblically, courageously, and winsomely.

Sound the Alarm from the pulpit.

Take a bold stand with others to defend and advance faith, family, and freedom.

I spoke to the pastors about ADF’s Pulpit Initiative and what the project is all about.  The Pulpit Initiative is a project to have the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional – to once and for all get the IRS and all government agencies out of the pulpits of America.  The purpose of the Pulpit Initiative aligns wonderfully with FRC’s Watchmen on the Wall ministry.  Pastors must sound the alarm from the pulpit that their constitutional rights are being infringed upon and that now is the time for pastors to stand up to regain the right to speak freely from their pulpits without any fear of government censorship or control.

While there, I was able to reconnect with many of the pastors who have participated with ADF in the past in the Pulpit Initiative.  These courageous men have been willing to stand and sound the alarm from their pulpits and it was encouraging to see them again.  ADF’s Pulpit Initiative would be nowhere without pastors standing up to fight for their rights and we owe these men a great debt of gratitude for leading the way on this important issue.

If you are a pastor, take the time to learn about the Pulpit Initiative and sign up today.  If you know of a pastor who would be interested, let them know about the Pulpit Initiative and encourage them to sign up today and stand with ADF and other pastors around the country.

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The Florida Baptist Witness recently posted an article about ADF’s Pulpit Initiative.  ADF has been speaking to pastors and church leaders across the country about the Pulpit Initiative, and encouraging them to sign up for Pulpit Freedom Sunday on September 26, 2010. 

The Pulpit Initiative is an opportunity for pastors to speak scriptural truth from the pulpit without fearing government censorship or control.  Something is wrong in America when we allow the government to step into the pulpit and censor a pastor’s sermon.  Whether you believe that a pastor should endorse or oppose a candidate from the pulpit is not the issue.  The issue the Pulpit Initiative was created to decide is who gets to make that decision for churches.  We believe that it is solely up to a pastor and the church leadership to decide whether to address candidates and elections from the pulpit and the government should not mandate that churches remain silent on this issue.  The Pulpit Initiative is intended to remove the government once and for all from the decison-making process of what gets said from the pulpit of a church.  It is time to remove the government from the pulpits of America.

Have you taken time to look at the information on our website about the Pulpit Initiative?  Have you prayerfully considered becoming part of this important fight?  If not, why not do so today?  become part of the movement to regain the sanctity and autonomy of America’s pulpits.  Join ADF in the Pulpit Initiative.