The Washington Post reports today on an effort by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) to encourage pastors to openly defy IRS regulations and endorse political candidates from the pulpit. The ADF claims to have several dozen pastors ready to make open endorsements on September 28th in a direct challenge to tax regulations that require churches to remain nonpartisan in order to keep their tax-exempt status. The Post quotes ADF attorney Erik Stanley:

“For so long, there has been this cloud of intimidation over the church…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.”

The movement hopes that a subsequent IRS investigation could be challenged in court, leading to a Supreme Court ruling that overturns the prohibition on endorsements from tax-exempt political entities as unconstitutional.

To counter this action, a group of clergy, cooperating with several former IRS officials, are pushing back before the ADF protest begins. The group is asking that the IRS investigate whether or not the ADF itself is putting its tax-exempt status at risk and also if the organization is violating ethical rules by having its attorneys advise pastors on how to break the law.

Project Fair Play, a new website sponsored by Americans United For Separation of Church and State, outlines what IRS regulations have to say about politics from the pulpit. Not only do IRS regulations expressly forbid endorsing candidates from the pulpit or in any other way by using official church resources, but in cases where churches violate these regulations, punishments have been handed out, including the revocation of tax-exempt status.

What I find particularly frustrating about this discussion is how the ADF attempts to portray itself as standing up for freedom of speech and religion in the face of supposedly onerous government restrictions on religious speech. But churches simply face the same restrictions that other nonprofit, tax-exempt entities face. Nor are pastors excluded from participating in politics; they may discuss social and policy issues and the importance of voting in general in their official role and endorse candidates or campaign for them as private citizens off-the-clock. What the IRS regulations prevent is churches bringing their tax-exempt resources to bear on behalf of a candidate. This is one small counter to the already enormous influence of organized religion on the political process in the United States.

Violations of tax law by churches in the United States can be reported to Americans United at Project Fair Play.