Friday, October 05, 2012

Become A Christian Lose Your Rights?




Become A Christian Lose Your Rights?
Religion actually lost its God given right of Free Speech on July 2, 1954, when Senator Lynden Baines Johnson just… took it away!

By de Andréa
October 4, 2012

I doubt that then Senator Johnson had any idea what he was doing when he wrote an amendment into the new IRS rules, but the IRS did!  They actually have prosecuted very few cases of this violation of political speech.  But it is the residual affect of this unconstitutional law that has Changed America in a very historical and un-American way.  This, by the way is what led to today’s so-called SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.  And we just laid down and went to sleep…

Approximately 228 years ago one would be put in stocks in the public square if they said anything negative about, or even actually told the truth about one of their British oppressors.  Technically in 1954 we regressed back to that same historical dichotomy from free speech, and the left calls themselves progressives.  They should be ashamed of their ignorance.

For 170 years Churches had Unrestricted Free Speech, but when this restriction was enacted in 1954 the IRS became a dictatorship.  It effectively took away freedom of speech from church Pastors, and if one of us loses their freedom all of us do!  And as you can see we are…

One of the most important reasons for the inclusion of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights was unfettered Free Political Speech without fear of retribution.  Isn’t it Ironic that the first major attack on the first Amendment would be restricted political speech?

For most of my life I had a little boiling pot of anger inside me about this issue, both at government for overstepping their authority and taking something away that only God can take away, and then at the church for not challenging this attack on American inalienable rights.  They should have protested even to the point of giving up their 501 (c) 3 status.  It just said to me the Church was willing to sell their rights for thirty pieces of silver.

But now, 58 years later, the number of pastors finally willing to standing up for their right to preach from their pulpits on anything’-- including politics, is surging.

In 2008, 35 pastors defied the IRS, which as a result of Johnson’s Amendment holds the position that church “organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”  It changed the course of America.  And if you don’t think it did, then how did we get this far down the wrong road my friend.  Because of this unconstitutional law, since 1954, fifty percent of evangelicals don’t even show up to vote.  Don’t you think that may have had something to do with the mess we are now in?  We need to see a 360 degree turnaround in this country in the next 30 days my friend.

The number of pastors boldly opposing the IRS rule grew to 539 in 2011 and is expected to be more than 1,500 on Oct. 7, 2012 during what organizers are calling “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.”  The day of the challenge…


Pastors can find support and instructions on participating at pulpitfreedom.org, and they will be backed by a legal team at the Alliance Defending Freedom.


No church has ever lost its tax-exempt status, despite claims to the contrary by the Godless critics of Christians who speak out against God and Country

The [anti] Americans United for Separation of Church and State says, it has sent 60,000 letters to churches in an effort to tell pastors that the law requires them to stay out of politics.  The group’s position is that churches are only tax-exempt because of the 501(c) 3 provision in the tax code, which has been revoked at least once since 1954.

Democrat Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson inserted language into a tax bill designed to restrict outspoken political opponents from using their nonprofits to campaign against him.  In other words it was a personal thing that he foisted on otherwise free Americans.  Known as the “Johnson Amendment,” it enabled the IRS to become a dictator of America’s church pulpits.

“Any activity designed to influence the outcome of a partisan election can be construed as intervention,” the Americans United letter declares.  “If the IRS determines that your house of worship has engaged in unlawful intervention, it can revoke the institution’s tax-exempt status or levy significant fines on the house of worship or its leaders.” As usual the left wing Communists lie like a rug.

The letter then recalls, “In 1995, the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of a Binghamton, N.Y., church for buying a full-page ad in USA Today opposing a 1992 presidential candidate.”

The Alliance Defending Freedom contends the AU letter is misleading and disingenuous, explaining that the church in New York had its “determination letter” revoked, not its “tax exempt” status.  The distinction is crucial, because there was no real effect on the church from this IRS action.  As I said they lie like a rug.

Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for Americans Defending Freedom, said that churches don’t need a determination letter from the IRS to be considered tax-exempt.

“IRS section 508(c)1 (a) automatically exempts churches, and no advance determination letter is necessary,” he explained.  He said that some churches get the letter anyway, but it is not necessary.

In essence, the IRS claims it has the ability to keep churches out of the political arena, while ADF insists that position isn’t constitutional.

ADF noted that a scholar who studied the issue extensively concluded that the Johnson Amendment “is not rooted in constitutional provisions for separation of church and state.  Johnson was not trying to address any constitutional issue related to separation of church and state; and he did not offer the amendment because of anything that churches had done,’” ADF said.

Pastors who participate in the special Sunday event will be sending recordings of their sermons to the IRS, effectively throwing down the challenge to argue the free speech of ministers in open court.  “It is important to note that in our opinion provisions of the tax code are unconstitutional,” says a letter from the Alliance Defending Freedom legal team.  “Specifically, any IRS attempt to censor a pastor’s sermon from the pulpit is unconstitutionalThat’s why Alliance Defending Freedom started Pulpit Freedom Sunday, to protect a pastor’s right to speak freely from the pulpit without fearing government censorship or control.”
ADF said: “After all, it’s the job of the pastor and the church leadership not the IRS to decide what is said from the pulpit.  No pastor should ever fear IRS censorship or punishment [of being put in stocks in the public square] when he stands in the pulpit to preach.”

In a conference call regarding the effort, Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio agreed that every Sunday should be “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” and it’s time that pastors in this country “choose truth over popularity.”

Jim Garlow, a prominent figure in the Pulpit Freedom Sunday movement, said, “We didn’t receive tax exempt status as churches because we did a swap saying we would not speak out on governmental issues. What the government can tax it can control, and what it can control it can kill,” he explained.

About the Johnson Amendment, Garlow said Johnson’s chief aide later admitted that they didn’t have churches in mind when the senator pushed the tax language through the Senate.  But, Garlow says, “This became the first time government intruded into the pulpit in America’s history.”

Hagee said during a half-hour-long conference call, “The evil day is not coming, the evil day is here.”  He continued, “Christians are being trampled by the secular left.”  He then urged pastors to get involved with educating their church members about biblical principles.  “Don’t get confused with left or right, or Democrat or Republican, vote the Bible,” he said.  “God’s Word is against homosexuality and abortion.  You know the party that is for those things, therefore you cannot support them,” he continued.

He said that he tells his church not to go into a voting booth as a “union member,” or any other label, but to go into the voting booth with God’s word in mind.


ADF points out, that before 1954, “there were no restrictions on what churches could or couldn’t do with regard to speech about government and voting, excepting only a 1934 law preventing nonprofits from using a ‘substantial’ part of their resources to lobby’ for legislation.”  

So then folks we should not only be able to voice opinion on political issues but to use an ‘unsubstantial’ (a small) part of our resources to lobby for legislation.  When are we going to fight for God and what is right?  It’s the only way we are going to save this country.  This could be only the beginning my friend.

THE BOTTOM LINE:  Urge your pastor to join in on saving our American Right of Free Speech, without it we will lose our right of Free Worship.  I can already see it coming down the road! It’s already happening!

One interesting result I see when Islam stands up in force for their so-called beliefs is that --- they go forward with their agenda.  But Christians have been complacent and as a result they have been going backward.  They are losing their resolve because they are losing their faith in truth!

Join the Christian Soldiers this Sunday and fight for God…

And VOTE!  Remember God gave you that right, if you don’t use it for His glory it will be taken it away.

de Andréa 




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