Clergy being briefed on free speech for Election ’08
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2071
Ed Thomas and Jody Brown
OneNewsNow.com
Pro-family, conservative and free-speech groups have sponsored a letter to pastors nationwide in anticipation of the upcoming 2008 elections — clarifying to clergy their legal rights to speak out during the campaign seasons.
Church pastors and religious groups all too commonly find themselves targets of IRS lawsuits, or threats of lawsuits, after speaking out on social issues of the day and the policy records of politicians and political candidates. But a coalition of groups has decided to take a proactive approach to that issue as election time nears, issuing a letter titled “Constitutional Protections for Pastors: Your Freedom to Speak Biblical Truth on the Moral Issues of the Day.” The October 1 letter was issued jointly by Concerned Women for America (CWA), Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), Focus on the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=547, James Madison Center for Free Speech, and Family Research Council.CWA’s Wendy Wright says the letter is intended to assure clergy members of their free-speech rights without having to worry about losing their church’s tax-exempt status. Wright says clergy would be remiss if they could not train their church members on what the Bible says concerning the most controversial issues of the day, especially when many of those issues will be the focus of the 2008 elections.
According to Wright, “America faces a moral free-fall, and some would hurry it along with the threat of government sanctions against Christians who dare to speak out on critical issues.”
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/10/clergy_being_briefed_on_free_s.php