THE BLAZE: Pastors Unite Against IRS to Deliver ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday’ Political Sermons (Poll)

Pastors Unite Against IRS to Deliver ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday’ Political Sermons (Poll)

It’s that time of year, again. On October 7, 2012, hundreds of Christian pastors are going to be taking to their pulpits with overtly political messages in an effort to challenge a restrictive Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) tax code. The calculated event, “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” is an annual initiative that seeks to rally believers against the government’s regulations on pastoral political endorsements.

The situation, as TheBlaze has noted in the past, is a complicated one. While there are certainly political issues that preachers can discuss from the pulpit, churches’ tax-exempt status prevents faith leaders, at least in part, from partisan preaching. Thus, if a church wants to enjoy tax benefits, it must comply.

THE HISTORY OF THE CONTROVERSIAL IRS CODE

Many pastors claim that the co-called “Johnson Amendment,” an IRS code that was added in 1954, causes such fear among some clergy that they end up erring on the side of not addressing controversial social and political issues (read a complete history of the controversial amendment here).

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/pastors-unite-against-irs-to-deliver-pulpit-freedom-sunday-political-sermons-poll/