Good news! The IRS has agreed to start monitoring churches more closely concerning political speech. Doesn’t that make you feel safe?

Apparently a lawsuit brought against the IRS by the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) has resulted in an agreement between the atheist group and the IRS to spend more time monitoring churches. After all, we can’t have churches giving direction to their congregations about critical issues, and where candidates stand on those issues. (Alliance Defending Freedom has sent a FOIA request to the IRS asking for these new policies.)

The lawsuit was first prompted in 2009 as a result of the nationwide ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday” campaign started by Alliance Defending Freedom. This campaign was started as an effort to challenge the unconstitutional “Johnson Amendment” that was inserted into the IRS code back in 1954. The Amendment makes it illegal for tax-exempt organizations to engage in electioneering, broadly defined as endorsing one political candidate or another.

The problem with the Johnson Amendment is that it has been used as a political weapon against churches seeking to educate their congregations concerning critical issues and where candidates stand on those issues.

Under the Johnson Amendment it could be considered illegal for a pastor to get up and say “the Bible teaches that abortion is wrong. In the upcoming election candidate A is pro-life, but candidate B is not. You must decide who to vote for according to your biblical convictions.”

There’s no reason such a statement should be remotely illegal or controversial as the pastor did not tell anyone who to vote for but simply explained where candidates stand. And yet groups like the FFRF don’t want pastors making such statements.

Of interest is the fact that the FFRF boasts a membership of roughly 20,000 nationwide. And yet conservative estimates say that approximately 100 million Americans attend church each week. Once again we see a minority group seeking to determine the freedoms of the majority.

Pesky numbers aside the First Amendment has no boundaries. There is not a hidden clause to the First Amendment that establishes boundaries for where free speech is and is not allowed. I know some liberals in our country would love nothing more than to restrict free speech inside schools, on federal property, outside abortion clinics, and inside churches. But the First Amendment guarantees us free speech and religious freedom. The unconstitutional Johnson Amendment is smoke and mirrors.

If pastors across America are indeed engaging in illegal behavior by addressing critical social issues, and sharing where candidates stand on those issues, then why hasn’t the IRS done anything about it?

Rob Boston, of the equally litigious American United for the Separation of Church and State (AU) wants to know why the IRS isn’t taking action also. He recently said “But the fact is, the IRS has been dragging its feet over this matter for some time. What is taking so long?”

Groups like the FFRF and AU would love nothing more than to see the IRS begin cracking down on churches that engage in this “illegal” activity. But, as I’ve heard my friend and senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, Erik Stanley say more than once, they know better.

Erik spearheads the Pulpit Freedom Sunday campaign with one goal in mind: to challenge the Johnson Amendment in federal court. Stanley and ADF want to see a pastor or church sued by the IRS for violating the Johnson Amendment so they can take the case to the Supreme Court because they believe (I agree) that the Supreme Court would overturn it and declare it unconstitutional.

This also explains why, to date, the IRS has never investigated one single church as a result of Pulpit Freedom Sunday, neither has one church had its tax-exempt status revoked. Churches, by their very nature, are tax-exempt. Even if the IRS were to revoke a churches tax-exempt status it would be nothing more than empty words because churches by simply existing are tax exempt and require nothing from the IRS.

I asked Erik to comment on this news from the IRS, to which he responded:

“If the IRS begins monitoring churches and auditing them for something the pastor says from the pulpit, Alliance Defending Freedom stands ready to defend the church and pastor and to argue to have the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional. Churches have lived for too long under fear of IRS censorship and punishment. It’s time to get the IRS out of the pulpits of America.”

What this news means to me is that the IRS is seeking to placate these atheist groups while continuing to use the Johnson Amendment as a tool of intimidation. Rather than seeing the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional, the IRS will continue to ignore churches that speak up because many are afraid and don’t know their rights. So the IRS is content to continue intimidating the majority of churches while a few informed churches exercise their rights.

Of course the FFRF and AU haven’t yet figured out that the IRS doesn’t want to see the Johnson Amendment challenged in federal court and so refuses to actually enforce it. Furthermore, these atheist groups haven’t realized that if it is “illegal” for churches to address critical issues and candidates from their point of view it could very well be determined by the Supreme Court of other enforcement agency that it is equally illegal for atheist groups to do the same. After all, it has been well established that atheism is indeed a religion all its own.

I can’t quite figure out why the FFRF and AU continue to push the IRS on this issue. They are the ones with the most to lose and their efforts would most likely result in one of the biggest religious freedom wins in recent history. So I plan to sit back and watch with interest as each year the Pulpit Freedom Sunday initiative grows and more churches begin to realize their rights and speak up.

For more information about Pulpit Freedom Sunday watch this short video or click here. I encourage you to talk with your pastor about taking part in this campaign to stand for religious freedom. If you are a pastor, I encourage you to learn more about Pulpit Freedom Sunday and contact Alliance Defending Freedom to get involved.