Thursday, August 4, 2016

Repeal the Johnson Amendment: Make Free Speech for Churches Great Again

Obama's former pastor of twenty years seems to have had all the freedom he wanted.

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And these people seem to have plenty of freedom:
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All that aside, here is the article posted:

John Steinreich  "While the media-begotten pseudo-scandals inundate the electorate with pro-Hillary messaging in an attempt to derail the Trump candidacy, it will do us well to consider some of the substance upon which concerned voters may wish to rely as they are sorting out the 2016 election.  Donald Trump’s nomination acceptance speech contained a brief sojourn into a important but little discussed topic he has reiterated on the stump.  Somewhat buried under the details that Mr. Trump laid out regarding the utter calamity that would be a Hillary Clinton presidency was his commentary on a 1954 piece of legislation known as the Johnson Amendment.  The germane section of the speech was this:"
At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical community who have been so good to me and so supportive. You have so much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits.  An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views.  I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans.
. . . "Jesus told His disciples to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s; by protecting their money through tax-exempt status, America’s preachers have surrendered both their right to free speech and the moral authority that comes with taking difficult positions on matters of political interest to Caesar.  Our nation’s clergy has effectively been bought off by the lure of filthy tax-exempt lucre." . . .
 John Steinreich graduated from Colorado Theological Seminary with a Masters in Church History and is the author of The Words of God?, an analytical comparison of the Bible and the Qur’an, available on Lulu Pressand on Kindle.

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