The First Amendment and the Pulpit
By Paul M. Weyrich
www.CNSNews.com Commentary
July 27, 2004

Rep. Walter Jones, (R-N.C.) is a very quiet man. He seldom gets excited...except when he is talking about the right of churches to be involved in the political process. Then he gets downright passionate.

Jones told us something about Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson was nominated to the Senate in 1948 by just a handful of votes. There were rumors that he stole that election. (Indeed, after Johnson died, a former election official confessed on his own deathbed that he had stolen the election for Johnson.)

Fearing that the churches would rise up in indignation (they did things like that back then) and call for the defeat of Johnson, the senator from Texas got a provision inserted in the IRS code indicating that churches that intervened in politics endangered their tax-exempt status. It worked. Johnson was re-elected in 1954 and went on to be the most powerful Majority Leader in modern times.

Johnson had put the word out that the churches had better stay out of his election. That was enough. The IRS itself did not pay attention to this provision for many years.

The IRS began moving against churches during President Jimmy Carter's administration. The IRS discouraged churches from rising up against the Carter administration's effort to claim that if church schools did not have minorities that were reflective of the community, they were guilty, de facto, of segregation.

IRS enforcement has been anything but uniform. Several conservative churches have lost their tax-exempt status because they were involved in the political process...but not black churches where Jesse Jackson conducted most of his presidential campaign.

Indeed, Rev. Al Sharpton, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, also used the black churches as the base of his campaign, and not a word was said. Just as nothing was said when Michael Dukakis, who is Greek, used the Greek Orthodox churches as a venue to raise millions of dollars.

That was then. This is now. The IRS is harassing churches for using "code words" such as pro-life. Churches are not just in danger of losing their tax-exempt status for intervening in elections. They are in danger of losing their tax-exempt status for intervening in policy politics. In other words, even if churches and synagogues preach the word of God, about life, about marriage or about sin, this can be interpreted as practicing politics.

In Canada a minister has been arrested for preaching from Leviticus about homosexuality. Reciting the Scriptures is considered "hate speech." Often what happens in Canada first, comes here later. Canada regularized "same-sex marriage" before the Massachusetts Supreme Court did so.

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) wants to restore the right of churches to be able to participate freely in the political process. He had introduced a similar bill at the end of the 107th Congress, but it did not get acted upon.

In this Congress, Jones has built a groundswell of sentiment. He has strong bi-partisan support. He has the backing of an array of outside groups that care about faith-based issues. However, Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has blocked Jones from being able to get a vote on his bill.

Jones is asking everyone who will listen to plead with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Majority Whip Roy Blunt to attach the language in his bill -- H.R. 235, which very simply repeals what Johnson did in 1954 and affirms the right of churches to be involved in the political process -- to some must-pass legislation and to fight for it in a conference committee with the Senate.

Jones is absolutely convinced that this can be accomplished in this Congress. He is equally convinced that the passage of his bill means the difference between victory and defeat for the president and many Senate candidates. One prime example is his colleague Rep. Richard Burr, who is running for the seat vacated by Sen. John Edwards, the Democratic vice president nominee.

I doubt if it will make much of a difference. Even if the bill were passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the president, word would not get out very fast this close to the election. Moreover, pastors are cautious. They would want to see a test case before they went forward.

So if the Jones bill became law, a church somewhere would have to determine that it was going to intervene in the political process. Then if it did and a complaint was filed and it was dismissed because the IRS no longer had the authority to harass the church on that basis, then word would get out and it might have an impact in 2006. Nevertheless, it is worth trying to get the House leadership to do what Jones has in mind.

If certain kinds of churches can practice policy politics while others cannot, it strikes me that Jones is dead right. It is very late. We will have only a few legislative days in September before the 108th Congress either adjourns or takes a recess for the elections. They can pass this bill -- or something similar -- if they want to. We get a great deal of lip service on issues like this. Let's see some real action!

(Paul M. Weyrich is chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.)

Copyright 2004, Free Congress Foundation

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