Stephen Carter, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale University Law School, ought to be more professional than to resort to an old school-boy trick of setting up an easily toppled straw man to misrepresent an adversary's position, but that is what he does in an essay posted this morning at Christian Today.
In an article entitled
"First Things First," Carter creates a straw man caricature of those who challenge the tax-exempt status of churches whose preachers engage in political electioneering from the pulpit. He says,
Suffice it to say that the framers would have been astonished to learn how many of today's civil libertarians read the First Amendment. They say the amendment -- originally meant to safeguard the freedom and independence of the churches -- not only allows but even requires the federal government to punish churches (by taking away their special tax status) for speaking up about any issues they believe the Lord is leading them to discuss.
The state has no right to tell the church what to say. The idea that a government benefit -- such as a church's tax-exempt status -- might be conditioned on speaking the right words from the pulpit is odious. Christians everywhere should protest any attempt by the state to shut down anybody's religious speech, especially a pastor's.
The truth is, "civil libertarian" organizations like Americans United for Separation of Church and State have never challenged the right of any preacher to speak on political issues from the pulpit. They have challenged the legality and fairness of granting tax exemptions to any non-profit corporation that endorses political candidates or political parties.
As I said in my October 14, 2004 blog "Kerry Crosses the Line:"
Ministers who insist that they need to endorse candidates and parties from the pulpit should also be prepared to operate under the same rules that apply to every other partisan political organization. That would require that they give up the federal tax exemption for contributions to their organization. Contributions to partisan political organizations are not deductible from federal income taxes. Otherwise, some partisans would be subsidized by taxpayers in their political activities while others were not.
This entry is cross-posted from the Mainstream Baptist blog.