Over at Dakota Voice, Bob Ellis has an interesting post that details the history of politics from the pulpit in America.  Bob does a good job of detailing many of the stories where pastors in American history spoke forcefully and with great conviction from their pulpits about political matters.  From the very beginning of our country, pastors spoke from their pulpits about matters of American life and politics that intersected with morality and religion.  After reviewing this extensive history, Bob concludes:

Seeing this issue in the light of the U.S. Constitution and history,  it is no wonder the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) launched it’s “Pulpit Initiative” two years ago to challenge the unconstitutional 1954 tax amendment and restore pastoral freedom to America’s churches.

I couldn’t agree more.  If a page of history is worth a volume of logic, then the many pages of history that are filled with stories of pastoral intervention in political matters should be an open and shut case for the logic of jettisoning the Johnson Amendment.

In his excellent book, Why Churches Should Not Pay Taxes, Dean Kelley illustrates the active involvement of churches in American politics:

Throughout the history of the nation – and long before – churches have been active in helping to shape the public policy of the commonwealth in ways they believed God desired.  They were instrumental in setting the stage for the obtaining of independence at its beginning, when the “black regiment” – as James Otis called them – of the dissenting clergy thundered against the tyranny of King George from their pulpits.  A few decades later, the churches, acting corporately, brought an end to the practices of dueling by getting prohibitions against it written into the constitutions of twenty-one states, and no one conceived that this activity had any bearing on their tax exemption.  Churches were active in the effort to abolish slavery (though by the time of the Civil War there were religious apologists for slavery in the churches of the South).  Churches pressed for laws against gambling, Sabbath-breaking, alcoholic beverages, prostitution, and child labor.  They have worked for laws advancing labor organizing, woman suffrage, civil rights, and family welfare.

In none of these instances… was such public-spirited activity of the churches conceived to jeopardize their tax exemption.

History is replete with examples of churches and pastors speaking freely from their pulpits about the great social and moral issues of our day – including the selection of our national leaders.  That all stopped with the passage of the Johnson Amendment through clearly illegitimate means.  It is time to turn back the page of history to restore the constitutional rights of pastors and churches as active participants in our culture.

Pastors – learn more about this effort and sign up to participate at www.pulpitfreedom.org.

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Since ADF launched the Pulpit Initiative in 2008, critics have attempted to argue that ADF is asking pastors to “break the law.”  While there are many good reasons why the Pulpit Initiative is not an attempt to have pastors “break the law,” I want to focus on one primary reason for the Pulpit Initiative strategy and hopefully demonstrate why it is important to follow this strategy to bring about a much-needed change to a very unconstitutional law.

When a citizen of the United States is threatened with enforcement of an unconstitutional law against him, he can file a lawsuit before the law is applied to him and ask the Court to declare it unconstitutional in advance of its enforcement or to issue an injunction preventing the law from being enforced against him.  These are called prospective challenges to the law because they seek to have the law struck down as unconstitutional before it is actually applied to the person.  The Supreme Court has allowed such challenges for years.  In 1974, the Court stated in the case of Steffel v. Thompson that, ”[I]t is not necessary that [the plaintiff] first expose himself to actual arrest or prosecution to be entitled to challenge [the] statute that he claims deters the exercise of his constitutional rights.”

As lawyers know, there are two ways to obtain prospective relief before a statute is actually applied against their client.  One way is through the use of the Declaratory Judgment Act.  This act allows for a Court to issue a declaration that a statute is unconstitutional even before it is applied to an individual.  The second way is where a court issues an injunction prohibiting the application of a statute to an individual.  ADF uses these two statutes frequently to launch challenges to unconstitutional laws or actions of government officials.

So why can’t ADF just file a prospective lawsuit against the IRS asking the Court to issue a declaratory judgment that the Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional as applied to a pastor’s sermon?  Or why couldn’t ADF file a lawsuit against the IRS and ask the Court for an injunction to stop the IRS from applying the Johnson Amendment to a pastor’s sermon from the pulpit?

The easy answer to why such a lawsuit would not work is that Congress has prohibited lawsuits against the IRS that seek either a declaratory judgment or an injunction.  Hang with me here because this is where things get a bit technical.  I’ll try not to bore you unnecessarily with the legalese, but it is important to understand why the Pulpit Initiative strategy is required in order to challenge the Johnson Amendment.

The Anti-Injunction Act is a statute that prohibits certain lawsuits that seek injunctions.  The Anti-Injunction Act prohibits a person from asking a court for an injunction in cases involving taxes.  Similarly, the Declaratory Judgment Act allows for a court to issue a declaratory judgment except in cases involving taxes.  Put simply, both of these statutes together prevent someone from filing a prospective lawsuit against the IRS.  The reasoning is that if the courts were open to litigants to challenge the IRS, then everyone would want to sue the IRS.  The courts have stated that opening the doors to such lawsuits would prevent the maintenance of a sound tax system.  Therefore, Congress has taken the position through these statutes that in cases involving taxes, individuals and groups can only challenge the IRS after they have gone through the IRS administrative process and then challenge the IRS application of the tax code to the taxpayer.  This means sometimes that the taxpayer must incur an IRS penalty before he can then challenge the constitutionality of the tax code.

For those of you still awake and reading this, the bottom line is that the only way to have the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional is for the IRS to apply it to a specific pastor’s sermon and then to launch a court challenge to that decision.  That’s why the Pulpit Initiative strategy is necessary.

If you are a pastor and you are interested in standing together with other pastors to restore your right to speak freely from your pulpit on any and all issues Scripture addresses, then sign up today for the Pulpit Initiative.

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http://www.pulpitfreedom.org

Nearly 100 pastors from almost 30 different states participated in ADF’s third annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday.  Click here for a link to the list of participating churches.  These pastors spoke freely from their pulpits and applied Scripture’s teachings directly and specifically to the issue of candidates and elections. The goal of Pulpit Freedom Sunday is to protect a pastor’s right to speak freely from his pulpit without fearing government censorship or control and  to challenge the constitutionality of the Johnson Amendment.

By all accounts, Pulpit Freedom Sunday was a great success.  Pastors participating reported that their messages were well-received by the congregations.  One pastor reported that his message drew a standing ovation from the congregation that was the largest standing ovation he had received in over 40 years of ministry.  All of this is, of course, anecdotal, but I believe it is also powerful evidence that when pastors are free to speak Scriptural truth from their pulpits without fear, then the Church and society at large benefits.

I will have more to say about Pulpit Freedom Sunday in future blog posts (and especially will have more to say about some of the criticisms), but for now wanted to highlight that Pulpit Freedom Sunday was a success and that we are excited about the days to come as we stand together with pastors across the country to protect the right of a pastor to speak freely from the pulpit.

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I was asked recently how it is that 60% of weekly church attendees support repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (according to a Gallup Poll from last year). The answer is simple: many pastors rarely if ever address the morality of homosexual behavior (or any other current controversial issues) from the pulpit. But we are bombarded by media with a secular worldview on everything from sexuality to the orgin of life.

The Bible has quite a bit to say on these issues and others like abortion, family, and citizenship. A quick glance at a few “sermon starters” on Family Research Council’s website gives you an idea what’s freely available online. But if pastors never take up these topics on Sunday morning, most church attendees will simply conclude the church doesn’t have a position.

The good news is, there are some pastors – like those involved in ADF’s Pulpit Initiative - who have not abandoned the culture wars. Not only do they speak up about what the Bible has to say on issues of the day, they encourage their parishoners to vote for people who share that biblical worldview.

But the failure of most churches to show up for the battle is not just unfortunate, it’s disasterous for religious freedom in America. An article in the Washington Post by Lawrence P. Grayson does a great job of demonstrating how the current societal trend of condoning immorality is on a collision course with religious freedom in America. If pastors don’t teach what the Bible has to say about these issues to their parishoners, their opinions will likely be formed by something other than religious conviction. This is harmful to the health of inviduals, society as a whole, and government. Mr. Grayson aptly quotes John Adams as saying,  “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

It’s vital that pastors address issues like homosexual behavior, from the pulpit, on Sunday morning. Otherwise folks think the Bible has nothing to say about sexual mores and other important matters we are currently wrestling with as a society.

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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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