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StumbleuponClergy wrestle with free speech issue in light of nonprofit rules
Despite IRS restrictions on partisan comments at official functions, some pastors took part in 'Pulpit Initiative.'
Sunday, November 02, 2008
The Rev. Mike Castle of Cross Creek Community Church, United Church of Christ displays a Barack Obama bumper sticker on his 2007 Buick Rendezvous and an Obama sign in his yard.
He even hosted a house party supporting the Democratic presidential candidate in July, but said he made it crystal clear to everyone the invitation was from Castle the friend, not Castle the pastor. There was no mention of his church.
"I would love to put a Barack Obama sign in our church yard. That's not what our church can or should do," Castle said. "If you want to make your church into a campaign headquarters, you're doing something different than being a church."
But pastors and other nonprofit leaders have a right to freedom of speech, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
"The political campaign intervention prohibition is not intended to restrict free expression on political matters by leaders of organizations speaking for themselves, as individuals," an IRS bulletin said.
"Nor are leaders prohibited from speaking about important issues on public policy. However, for their organization to remain tax exempt under section 501(c)(3), leaders cannot make partisan comments in official organization publications or at official functions of the organization," the bulletin said.
In Castle's view, there is a clear line not to cross — something he believes 33 pastors from congregations across the country did when they participated in the "Pulpit Initiative" on Sept. 28.
Those who took part in the coordinated effort led by the Alliance Defense Fund endorsed or opposed a candidate from the pulpit on that day.
The conservative Scottsdale, Ariz.,-based legal defense fund said it was founded "to aggressively defend religious liberty."
No ministers from Ohio participated in the Pulpit Initiative, but Castle was among about 50 ecumenical, interfaith clergy (led by a United Church of Christ congregation in Columbus) who protested the group's stand in a letter to the IRS.
"As religious leaders, we have grave concerns about the ethical implications of soliciting and organizing churches to violate core principles of our society, namely, respect for the rule of law and the separation of church and state," said the protest letter, sent to the IRS' Tax Exempt and Government Entities division.
Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund said they are prepared to defend the First Amendment rights of pastors who they argue engaged in free speech.
"Pastors have a right to speak about biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment," the defense fund's senior legal counsel, Erik Stanley, said. "No one should be able to use the government to intimidate pastors into giving up their constitutional rights."
Asked last week if any action has been taken against the churches that took part, IRS spokesman Eric L. Smith said, "We continue to monitor possible political activity by churches and other 501(c)(3) organizations, and will take action as appropriate."
Contact this reporter at (937)225-2094 or mkissell@DaytonDaily
News.com.
