Brave But Uninformed Pastors

The Nashville Tennessean reports that this Sunday, seven Tennessee pastors will "bait" the IRS by endorsing candidates from the pulpit. (see the article here)  The Alliance Defense Fund based in Arizona had encouraged approximately one hundred pastors nationwide to do so this Sunday.

The ADF has apparently previously sent audio or videotape of sermons to the IRS with no response other than a standard response of restating IRS rules for exemption.

Seems to me the IRS is doing a good job of bluffing!  Their rules state that "a church" cannot make an endorsement of a candidate.  A pastor can do his personal endorsements all day long and it does not violate their rules.  But the IRS doesn't like to make any clarification when they already have 99.9 percent of white pastors groveling in fear of jail time. 

It would seem to be a simple procedure to gets the facts before reacting.  This all reminds me of the annual eMail (it used to come by snail mail) that we must all write/eMail the FCC because the atheist Madelyn Murray OHare is trying to get all religious broadcasting banned from the airwaves (even though she has been dead for nearly two decades)!  Uninformed minds are a certainty to make for really stupid action.  And that is something the Church just doesn't have enough of.

The pastoral reaction to IRS intimidation certainly doesn't remind one of Daniel's confidence in divine protection as he was lowered into the lions' den.  Haven't any of these profits (certainly not prophets) noticed that black pastors make endorsements all the time?  They are not disciplined by the IRS not because they are black (or liberal), but because they haven't broken any rules in the first place!

So this Sunday a total of SEVEN Tennessee pastors will enter their pulpits and display their bravery in the face of the Empire by doing what the Empire already allows them to do.

O Lord, please look favorably upon You Church and bless us with pastors who are both wise and brave.

From Solitude,
David O Jones