All Posts Tagged With: "Church and state"

“The role  of the religious leaders is to stand apart from government, to prophetically speak

truth to power.”

An evangelical Christian minister in Indiana told his congregation Sunday that voting for Sen. Barack Obama would be evidence of “severe moral schizophrenia.” The Democratic presidential nominee’s positions on abortion and gay partnerships exist “in direct opposition to God’s truth as He has revealed it in the Scriptures.” Johnson showed slides contrasting the candidates’ views but stopped short of endorsing Obama’s Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain.

Rev. Ron Johnson Jr. and 32 other pastors set out Sunday to break the rules, hoping to generate a legal battle that will prompt federal courts to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship.

This is part of a national campaign, organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a socially conservative legal consortium based in Arizona, the Internal Revenue Service has pledged to “monitor the situation and take action as appropriate.”

In an open letter Saturday, a United Church of Christ minister, the Rev. Eric Williams said, “The role of the church — of congregation, synagogue, temple and mosque — and of its religious leaders is to stand apart from government, to prophetically speak truth to power,” Williams wrote, “and to encourage a national dialogue that transcends the divisiveness of electoral politics and preserves for every citizen our ‘first liberty.’ “

For Williams the dichotomy between the secular and the sacred a myth: “The issue is not ‘Are we legislating morality?’ This issue is ‘Whose morality are we legislating?’ “

Other clergy pledge to avoid endorsing political candidates. But, that blurs over issues like abortion and homosexual marriage.

Legal scholars generally agree this has little to do with the debate about separation of church and state versus separation from church and state although some less informed will contend it does connect. But, the issue is first the 1954 IRS code and to get the matter into court the IRS must act and “harm” a church or congregation. In that case there will be a legal scrap that could last for years.