A Houston-Area Church Is Going To Host ‘Drag Bingo’ For Children
(ktrh.iheart.com)
🤢 These people are sick! 🤮
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I don't know anything about that church and what happened to them, but many pastors purposely violate the Johnson amendment in order to challenge it court but the IRS has yet to come after them.
https://adfmedia.org/press-release/pulpit-initiative-pulpit-freedom-sunday
Why would the IRS go after churches affiliated with a team of lawyers when they're only speaking freely one Sunday a year and risk the Johnson Amendment being overturned by the courts?
taps forehead
Legal Alliance Gains Host of Court Victories for Conservative Christian Movement
The comparison may or may not prove apt, but these are heady days for Alliance Defending Freedom, which, with its $40 million annual budget, 40-plus staff lawyers and hundreds of affiliated lawyers, has emerged as the largest legal force of the religious right, arguing hundreds of pro bono cases across the country.
In perhaps its most aggressive effort, the alliance organizes an annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday, enlisting pastors, who under federal rules may not endorse politicians or bills, to link “biblical principles” to politics in their sermons. In June, more than 1,000 pastors signed up to preach “the truth about marriage.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/us/legal-alliance-gains-host-of-court-victories-for-conservative-christian-movement.html
Archived link - https://archive.ph/J2HFE
Think logically.
That's exactly my point. They don't go after them because they know there is a significantly likelihood they'll lose and the Johnson Amendment will be overturned. Large numbers of churches and pastors self-censor and so the IRS has very little to gain and a lot to lose by trying to enforce the Johnson Amendment and having it challenged.
What? That a group of pastors violate the Johnson Amendment once a year and the IRS doesn't care because it's once a year production? Not only that, but the Alliance for Defending Freedom picks the topic of their sermons. Kek.
What's not to understand? Lots of churches flaunting it and the IRS doesn't go after them because they know its not constitutional and would very very likely be overturned.
My point is that if churches would stop being cowards they could get the Johnson Amendment overturned. Then they could keep their tax exempt status and speak about political issues freely.
I agree with you that pastors shouldn't censor themselves because of tax exempt status, however from the pastors I've talked with they don't mention tax exempt status. They say they don't talk about politics because they think it's unbiblical. They cite 1 Peter 2 about being exiles in a foreign land, or 1 cor 5 about not judging those outside the church. I was visiting a friend's church a few weeks ago and the pastor preached from 1 Peter 2 and flat out said "we're not of this world and we disobey God when we involve ourselves in the matters of this world" or something to that effect, and that the only thing we're to do is "preach the gospel".
Obviously that makes no sense and doesn't even remotely fit in the context of what is being talked about in 1 Peter, but what can you say to a pastor that has been indoctrinated for 20 or 30+ years that God says no politics? Just like the saying the science advances one funeral at a time, the same is probably true for churches as well. Most pastors are probably never going to change. They're just going to retire and die off, and hopefully they are replaced by pastors who understand how important pastors and churches are to all aspects of society, including politics.