Sunday, September 30, 2012

Churches Seeking Special Rights

The Christofascists are always claiming that LGBT Americans are seeking "special rights."  Truth be told, it's the not the gays that want special rights.  No, its the Christofascists who want to be free to ignore the IRS restrictions against political activities by charities as conservative churches and some denominations become de facto arms of the Republican Party.  The justification for restrictions that apply to all other charities?  The increasingly used and disingenuous ruse that such restrictions impinge on "religious freedom" and "free speech."  The real story is that these churches and Christofascists want special rights and they want all taxpayers to indirectly underwrite their political activities.  Even when those political activities attack and demonize those being forced to underwrite them via the tax-exemption for 501(c)(3) charities.  It's complete hypocrisy, but then what's more synonymous these days than with hypocrisy than conservative Christianity?  An piece in The New Republic looks at the effort by these churches to defy the law through “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” and then demolishes their lies and false defense of their illegal actions.  Here are highlights:

On Sunday, October 7, pastors around the country will try to bait the federal government into investigating them by preaching explicitly partisan sermons. As part of a conservative movement organizers call “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” some religious leaders will endorse Mitt Romney from the pulpit. Others may refrain from an endorsement but vigorously criticize President Obama. And some will tell their congregations that a good Christian can only vote for a candidate who opposes gay marriage and abortion. Then they’ll send tapes of their sermons to the Internal Revenue Service in the hopes of being audited.

Supporters of Pulpit Freedom Sunday argue that current law violates religious liberty and free speech by placing restrictions on what religious leaders can say.

Let’s consider this claim. In order to believe that churches are being censored by the government, you have to accept that religious organizations have not only the right to engage in partisan speech and activities but also the right to be exempt from federal taxes and the right to accept donations that are tax-deductible. There simply is no constitutional right that covers the latter. The tax-exempt status for churches is a monetary benefit given to them by the government, as is the rule allowing individuals to deduct their contributions to religious organizations.

It’s quite simple. If a church wants to endorse a candidate and engage in campaign activities, there are absolutely no restrictions preventing it from doing so. But it must pay federal taxes, and its donors cannot deduct their contributions. Additionally, a pastor can preach about same-sex marriage or immigration reform or abortion or economic justice. But he cannot tell parishioners that they must support a particular candidate because of their views on one of those issues. The churches involved in Pulpit Sunday want to have it both ways. They want to use tax-deductible donations to participate in campaigns, and no doubt there are plenty of political donors who would prefer to deduct their political contributions by sending them through religious organizations.

Religious leaders have long been active in political movements—and partisan campaigns—but Americans are growing less tolerant of that intermingling of the religious and the political. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has found that more Americans now oppose church involvement in politics than support it, a shift from 15 years ago.  

The willingness—and indeed eagerness—of many conservative pastors and priests to flout the law by endorsing Romney may not swing the election in the Republican’s favor. And a court challenge of the law under a potential second Obama term might just devolve into yet another culture war charge that Democratic administrations and activist judges are restricting the rights of religious Americans. But there must be some alternative to the status quo, in which select religious organizations enthusiastically engage in government-subsidized campaigning while happily claiming their tax exemption.

Yes, these Christofascists are liars and hypocrites.  As I've noted before, they believe that their rights trump the rights of all others and that they are indeed above the law.  I think it is far beyond time that all politically active churches lose their tax exempt status.  They are free to say whatever they want, but the rest of us should not be forced to help underwrite their hate and venom.  The concept of a "charity" includes the expectation that the entities activities promote the general well being of all citizens and society as a whole.  Most conservative churches ceased performing this function decades ago, if they ever did it at all.

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