Fundies to test IRS ban on political endorsements from pulpit

Fundies plan to test the ban on political endorsements from the pulpit
by: Pam Spaulding
Mon Sep 08, 2008 at 12:15:00 PM EDT

Daddy D-founded Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting right-wing pastors to test the IRS ban on making political endorsements from the pulpit, an act that can result in the removal of a church's non-profit status. The "Pulpit Initiative" is being launched as desperation mounts in the social conservative movement -- its leaders know they are losing the culture wars -- and they are looking for ways to ensure that low-information voters out in the pews are guided into voting "correctly." (WaPo):

Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules.

The effort by the Arizona-based legal consortium is designed to trigger an IRS investigation that ADF lawyers would then challenge in federal court. The ultimate goal is to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship.

"For so long, there has been this cloud of intimidation over the church," ADF attorney Erik Stanley said. "It is the job of the pastors of America to debate the proper role of church in society. It's not for the government to mandate the role of church in society."

Read more here: http://www.pamshouseblend.com/

I don't think it's ever enforced.