Thirty Churches To Challenge IRS By Endorsing Candidate From The Pulpit
As most of you know, churches as organizations aren’t allowed to get political. They can’t endorse campaigns and they can’t criticize political candidates in an official way. This is because of their non-profit, tax exempt status. But now thirty churches are going to challenge that policy by making official political endorsements from the pulpit today.
Will they succeed? Should they succeed?
I’m all for free speech myself, but I think the real problem here isn’t that churches aren’t allowed to get political. It’s that we have organizations in this country enjoying a special tax status. Seems to me that if these churches want to get political they can pay taxes like the rest of us do. They have a right to free speech, but by entering into an agreement with the federal government to avoid paying taxes they voluntarily give up part of that right.
They can’t have their cake and eat it too.
Personally, even though I hate increasing taxes generally and don’t think the government needs any more revenue than it already has, I don’t like the non-profit exemptions in the tax code. Far too often they’re used to control political speech, or at least inhibit it, and I don’t see where they’re doing anyone any real good.
These churches are playing a dangerous political game, I think. They want their right to free speech, but they should be careful what they wish for as they could end up losing their cushy tax exempt status as well.
