2008-09-08 Ban on Political Endorsements by Pastors Targeted

2008-09-08 Peter Slevin Washington Post \separation of church and state\religious tax exemption\Internal Revenue Service\Alliance Defense Fund\2008/09/28 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/07/AR2008090702460.html Ban on Political Endorsements by Pastors Targeted Ban on Political Endorsements by Pastors Targeted  Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on 2008-09-28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules.

The effort by the Arizona-based legal consortium is designed to trigger an IRS investigation that ADF lawyers would then challenge in federal court. The ultimate goal is to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship.

"For so long, there has been this cloud of intimidation over the church," ADF attorney Erik Stanley said. "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."

Yet an opposing collection of Christian and Jewish clergy will petition the IRS today to stop the protest before it starts, calling the ADF's "Pulpit Initiative" an assault on the rule of law and the separation of church and state.

&ldquo;Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on {{date|2008-09-28|Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules.&rdquo;  {{:project:code/show/link}} 