According to an article in the Washington Times, 33 preachers nationwide said that they would be endorsing specific "candidates from the pulpit," preaching about the moral qualifications of their choice on Sunday.
The campaign, called Pulpit Freedom Sunday, is organized by a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based group called the Alliance Defense Fund, comprised of Christian lawyers who work for socially conservative causes.
The churches say they know the endorsements will likely result in a loss of tax-exempt status, but say that they are employing civil disobedience and eventually hope to test the law in the Supreme Court.
Their actions are similar to teachers in public education who express specific political preferences in the classroom. It is not appropriate, and such an approach has just as much opportunity to alienate audiences the intended audience as it does to sway them.
Preachers who endorse specific political candidates and go so far as to discuss each candidate's "moral qualifications" should look at the separation of church and state as a policy that intends to protect religious assemblies as well as the government.
That is not to say that preachers do not have every right to discuss as well as determine moral issues such as the war in Iraq, abortion, execution and stem-cell research, to name a few.
But come Sunday morning, they do not need to be endorsing specific candidates. Doing so would be a distracting abuse of power. To do so with religious authority would also be immoral.
Being exempt from taxes should be more than enough motivation for churches to remain detached from politics. To endorse a candidate during mass is to act as a political assembly, not a church.
Organizations receiving federal money should not publicly tender an opinion on the government. Doing so could go as far as to also damage the image of the institution, as the public may inevitably wonder whether churches are just endorsing the candidate who will shell out the most money.
People go to church to receive guidance on many things; politics shouldn't be one of them.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
