As Edger has reported previously, the Alliance Defense Fund’s so-called “Pulpit Initiative,” a plan that encourages religious leaders to break the law by using their tax-exempt religious institutions to endorse presidential candidates, violates Jeffersonian principles like the separation of church and state in a rather oblique way. Fortunately, according to a new poll, most Americans are strongly in favor of such principles, indicating that the ADF’s “Pulpit Initiative,” beyond being a great opportunity for a lot of preachers to lose their tax exemption (and for several ADF lawyers to be disbarred, I imagine), is also doomed to spectacular failure in the hearts and minds of the public. Here are some of the results:
- 85% of Americans find it inappropriate for churches to use their resources to campaign for American presidential candidates.
- 52% of Americans agree with the statement that churches who publicly endorse political candidates should lose their tax exemption. 42% disagreed.
- Born-again evangelical Protestants were the least likely group surveyed to agree that churches should lose their tax exemption for violating the legal conditions of tax exemption (only 26% agreed, compared to 39% of all Protestants).
- 87% object to pastors, priests, and other pulpiteers from taking time during sermons to advocate a political party or presidential candidate.
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“and for several ADF lawyers to be disbarred, I imagine”
I hope.
The ADF’s lawyers ARE advising their clients to break federal law. As far as I can tell, this falls under “incitement,”
That Christians feel they need their own analog of the ACLU (and probably think it stands for Atheist Civil Liberties Union) shows the depths of their hostility toward any secular social institution. Well, except the military. But they’re working on that.