If we were in church, Pastor Steve Hickey could get a "Amen!" from this corner with his latest post at Voices Carry.
He talks about the great need to restore the separation of church and state that the Founders intended and enshrined in the First Amendment.
That separation and that freedom of religious expression has been torpedoed when Senator Lyndon B. Johnson inserted a provision into the tax code in 1954--a provision intended to silence his critics, but which also put an unconstitutional muzzle on pastors and churches.
Pastor Steve also sets the record straight on why churches have been exempt from taxes since the earliest days of our nation--because they provide a tremendous positive service to our society..arguably one even greater than homeless shelters and food banks.
He also thumps the "theocracy" idiocy before it gets out of the gate, along with the "separation of church and state" propaganda, and also the "imposing your values on others" nonsense.
As they say in some churches in the South: Preach it, Brother! Tell it all!
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Voices Carry Sets It Straight on Religious Freedom
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2 comments:
If a church decides to foresake its charitable/religious mission and instead to subvert itself as a pawn of a political campaign, it should lose its tax exemption. An exemption is a privilege, granted with the understanding that a non-profit will not play partisan politics. Just as the Hatch Act prohibits government employees from doing the same, for the privilege of government employment.
So we had it wrong for nearly 200 years, until Lyndon Johnson "corrected" things, aveteran?
I suppose he also corrected that silly drivel about freedom of speech and freedom of religious expression, because if the government assesses a penalty for certain types of exercise of speech or religion, it isn't free.
I'm glad Johnson was here to set straight those idiot Founders and all who followed them for nearly 200 years.
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