Churchs Will Back McCain/Palin Despite Tax Law

“I would cast a vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin,” said Pastor Luke Emrich. “But friends, it’s your choice to make, it’s not my choice. I won’t be in the voting booth with you.”

Calling upon scriptures, Pasotr Emrich said, “I’m telling you straight up, I would choose life.”

IRS Rules prohibit Political endorsements for tax-exempt nonprofits, yet 33 Pastors in 22 States plan to do just that. These Churches are willing to risk a legal fight and even their tax-exempt status to support the McCain/Palin ticket.

Pastor Jody Hice of Bethlehim Baptist Church in Georgia, in an interview Sunday said it was more ‘a matter of First Amendment issue’ and comparing Obama versus McCain, McCain holds more to a biblical world vew. Hice said, “To say the church can’t deal with moral and societal issues if it enters into the political arena is just wrong, it’s unconstitutional.”

In 1954 Congress amended the tax code, to state that certain nonprofit groups [including secular charities and places of worship], can actually lose their tax-exempt status for participating in campaign or involvement with Political candidates.

According to Robert Tuttle, a professor of law and religion, the sermons delivered by these Pastors are a clear violation of IRS rules. Conservative Arizona based Alliance Defense Fund, a legal group, plans to send copies of the Pastors’ sermons to the IRS. The hope is to set off a legal fight and abolish the restrictions on church involvement in politics. But, even if the IRS rises to the bait, Professor Tuttle says there’s virtually no chance the courts will strike down the prohibition. “The government is allowed, as long as it has a reasonable basis for doing it, to treat political and nonpolitical speech differently, and that’s essentially what it’s done here,” Tuttle said.

Bridge to Nowhere?

The Obama camp has become so shaken and scared where Sarah Palin is concerned, and they continue (Biden included) to whine about the bridge to nowhere. But, they seem to have forgotten two very important facts:

1. The project for the “Bridge to nowhere” was already in place before Governor Palin took office.

2. They neglect to mention – both times it came up for vote, Senator Obama voted to support the project for the “Bridge to nowhere.”

Why is it that the Obama camp makes no mention of these two key facts?