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NEW
PETITION! Repeal
the 1954 Johnson
Amendment and revoke the
IRS's power to Tax
Churches and Non-profits
if they endorse
political candidates.
Please select,
sign, and WE WILL FAX
your petition
to all 535 members of
Congress (saving you
time!)
Senator:
IRS should Tax Churches
if Pastors endorse
Political Candidates
One heroic Congressman
Walter Jones (R-NC) has
introduced a new bill to
repeal the 1954 Johnson
Amendment law that
encourages the IRS to
tax churches and
non-profits if their
pastors endorse or
oppose political
candidates for office
from the pulpit.
The new "Pulpit
Freedom" bill H.R.
3600 would eliminate the
(unconstitutional) law
that punishes free
speech in churches,
named for then Senator
Lyndon B. Johnson (D-TX)
who later became
President. In
1954, LBJ was a liberal
in the conservative
South, who did not
like hearing pastors
preach about politics or
endorsing his opponents
from their pulpits.
So instead of
changing churches, Senator
Johnson wrote a bad law
and got it passed, to
silence pastors in
churches he didn't like,
by giving the IRS power
to tax conservative
churches who exercise
their First Amendment
rights. Finally
in 2011, Congressman
Jones is trying to
defend the Constitution,
and restore free speech
to conservative pastors.
No word yet on whether
pastors can endorse
Jesus Christ as
"King of Kings and
Lord of Lords" over
the Christmas holidays,
but the IRS is still
looking into that.
I've preached in over
100 churches in 27
states since 2006, and this
issue is #1 on
pastors hearts. The
Johnson law has allowed
the IRS to bully pastors
into silence for
decades. And it works.
Notice
how our nation has
morally declined since
pastors lost their
freedom and got gagged by
the IRS. Why
were many pastors
silent when our
military was
homosexualized this
year? Why are so few
churches involved
in protecting the rights
of children to be
protected from
tax-funded abortions?
Why are pastors
silent about school
prayer, or good and bad
political candidates?
They
fear the consequences of
taking a stand.
Many pastors
privately tell me they
fear the IRS taxing
their churches, if they
speak what's really on
their mind. Let's
take off their gag, and
stand for their freedom.
SELECT
HERE TO SIGN PETITION,
demanding PULPIT FREEDOM
for Pastors and Churches
to freely endorse and
oppose political
candidates, and we will
instantly fax all 535
Congressmen and Senators (saving
you much time and
postage!)
The
1954 Johnson Amendment
law is not just
unconstitutional, it's
also un-American.
Hundreds
of courageous pastors
take a stand every
October, by
violating the Johnson
Amendment law and
preaching about politics
(just one Sunday per
year) in the pulpit.
Many send
transcripts to the IRS
demanding their own
punishment, and daring
the IRS to sue them in
court, or try to revoke
their church's
non-profit IRS status.
So
far the IRS has failed,
repeatedly, to enforce
the Johnson Amendment,
because they themselves
admit the law violates
the First Amendment
of the U.S.
Constitution. The
government cannot tax or
punish free speech,
especially in church.
Religion
itself is highly
political, because God
is God, and the devil
wants to rule in His
place. Nowadays
the devil uses corrupt
politicians to rule
society and pass immoral
laws.
Throughout America's
history, starting with
the Revolution, our
nation's pastors spoke
freely on political and
moral issues of their
day. It was not only
their privilege but
their duty to preach
truth to power, against
immorality and
corruption. Historian
James H. Huston wrote of
1776: "Preachers
seemed to vie with their
brethren in other
colonies in arousing
their congregations
against George
III." Mr.
Huston also discovered
the House of
Representatives
sponsored church
services in its chambers
for the first 100 years.
They only stopped
when better
transportation took
members of Congress home
for the weekend.
In the mid-nineteenth
century, evangelical
Christians were primary
agents in shaping
American political
culture and ending
slavery,
according to Richard
Carwardine, author of
Evangelicals and
Politics in Antebellum
America. "Political
sermons, triumphalism
and doom laden, redolent
with biblical imagery
and theological
terminology, were a
feature of the
age," he writes.
In the 1856 election,
one minister distilled
the question before voters
as a contest pitting
"truth and
falsehood, liberty
and tyranny,
light and darkness,
holiness and sin . . .
the two great armies of
the battlefield of the
universe, each
contending for
victory."
Language like this today
earns a pastor a visit
or letter from the
Internal Revenue
Service.
In 1992, the Church at
Pierce Creek in Vestal,
New York placed a
newspaper ad warning
Christians not to vote
for Bill Clinton for
president. Casting
a vote for Clinton, the
ad warned in rhetoric
echoing 1856, would be
committing a sin. The
IRS took notice and
three years later
revoked the conservative
church's tax exemption.
But the IRS does not
enforce this law fairly.
For example in 1994
another church in New
York welcomed "New
York governor Mario
Cuomo (D-NY) campaigned
for reelection on a
Sunday morning at the
Bethel African Methodist
Episcopal Church in
Harlem. Cuomo
was rewarded with a
long, loud round of
applause and an
unequivocal endorsement
from the pastor,"
according to a Newsday
report. But
the IRS never stops
liberals. The
American Center for Law
and Justice, which
represented the Church
at Pierce Creek,
uncovered evidence at
trial that the IRS knew
of more than 500
instances in which
candidates appeared
before churches, as
happened with Governor
Cuomo and Bethel A.M.E.,
but took no action to
revoke these churches'
tax-exempt status.
The Johnson law is being
used by the Government
to shape the messages of
the Church and its
pastors. Conservative
churches are silenced,
but liberal churches are
freely politicized. This
Goverment censorship
of ANY Church is plain
and simple illegal.
The First
Amendment states that
"Congress shall
make no law respecting
an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise
thereof; or abridging
the freedom of
speech." Yet that
is exactly what Congress
did, and the IRS now
does, by silencing
churches.
Bottom line: Our
pastors are being
silenced. Let's
take the gag off
conservative churches,
and restore the First
Amendment freedom of
speech to our pulpits.
Sign our new
petition!
SELECT
HERE TO SIGN PETITION,
demanding PULPIT FREEDOM
for Pastors and Churches
to freely endorse and
oppose political
candidates, and we will
instantly fax all 535
Congressmen and Senators (saving
you much time and
postage!)
Friends,
our Congress must vote
on the record, for or
against pulpit freedom.
Let's take a
stand today, and demand
free speech be restored
to churches and pastors.
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P.S.
Time is urgent! Please
sign our petition today.
Prefer to donate by
mail? Please mail
paper check or money
orders to: The
Pray In Jesus Name
Project, PO Box 77077,
Colorado Springs, CO
80970.
SELECT
HERE TO SIGN PETITION,
demanding PULPIT FREEDOM
for Pastors and Churches
to freely endorse and
oppose political
candidates, and we will
instantly fax all 535
Congressmen and Senators (saving
you much time and
postage!)
Disclaimer:
The views of Chaplain
Klingenschmitt, who was
vindicated by Congress
after being honorably
but involuntarily
discharged from the Navy
in 2007 after facing
court-martial for
praying "in Jesus
name" in uniform, are
his own personal views,
not the views of any
political party,
government, or
organization.
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