Yesterday, I wrote about some of the recent developments of
churches that were endorsing political candidates from the pulpit and the
impact that it may have on tax-exempt status going forward. You can read that
here:
As a follow up I received an email from GW Carlson, a member
of my church and retired professor of Political Science from Bethel University,
and an individual very involved in the Baptist church and very attuned to
governance issues. He sent me a couple of links that I want to share.
The first is from the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious
Liberty on the issue of Church Electioneering (endorsing candidates from the
pulpit). Here is the statement:
The quick summary is that it affirms the right and need for
churches to be involved in public debates while also acknowledging and
accepting the IRS tax code as “striking the right balance between protections
for individuals and tax-exempt entities and maintaining a healthy separation of
church and state”.
Another quote that really speaks to the balance of the
church is as follows:
[Prohibitions on electioneering] does not mean that they (churches/pastors) cannot speak out on the social, moral and ethical policy issues of the day. Churches may not, however, support or oppose candidates for office without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status. This restriction includes a prohibition on endorsements or opposition for a candidate from the pulpit.
The statement continues that the laws are not designed to
silence the faithful in their call to work toward a more just society, but
instead “to protect the charitable purposes of the organization and integrity
of the tax code, without infringing on the free speech and religious rights of
individuals”.
The strikes me as the right balance and really calls into
the focus the historical position of the Baptist church in affirming the
separation of church and state. Of course, situations do change, and it is now
Baptist churches (or at least non-denominational evangelical churches with
Baptist roots), that are pushing the envelope on this separation.
My thought has always been that when the separation between
church and state start to gets fuzzy, it will ultimately corrupt both
institutions, but none quite so bad as the church. The temptation of temporal
policy is always there, but as in everything, the church is well advised to follow
the example Jesus first showed us (Mt. 4:8-10).
The second link comes from an interview with Christian
author Max Lucado:
I’m not going to comment much on it, but it is a good read,
with great wisdom from a Christian leader on how to bridge some of the divide.
I am proud to be a member of a church that can call itself “purple”, with
people from across the political spectrum working together to serve Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment