Stories like this kind of scare me a little bit. The IRS is threatening to revoke the tax-exempt status of a California church because a guest preacher gave an anti-war, anti-tax cut speech right before the 2004 election. This would of course be a political action on on behalf of the church. First of all, I would argue that politics has no place in the church; the church should present the Bible and let the people decide for themselves how it applies to politics. This action by the IRS, however, does scare me in that this could lead to a violation of our freedom to worship. I do understand that political rules must be followed and candidates should not use the disguise of a church to further their political agenda; however, the government should not intervene in what we can and cannot say in church and during worship. This could lead to hundreds of churches being revoked of tax-exempt status just because a preacher says something that is contrary to policies of the government. That sounds almost like communism to me and that certainly does not fit in with the ideas of American democracy. The government has no right to take such actions and threatens the very foundation of our great nation!filed under: news, politics, thoughts
No comments:
Post a Comment