Forbidding politicking from the pulpit is a Free Exercise violation [View all]
The First Amendment lends itself to a sensible, comprehensive interpretation but since people don't really like the First Amendment much (as written) we get confused, contrary interpretation.
For instance, if my religion says Barack Obama is the devil then I am obliged to preach against voting for the devil.
And if my religion says that the indiscriminate murder of thousands of people is evil then I must tell my followers to not vote for George W. Bush.
Free Exercise of ones religion obviously includes at least talking about politics, as surely as it includes talking about any aspect of life.
Instead we have a policy that restricts exercise of religion by threatening to take away tax exemptions from churches that practice politics.
That is the federal government using tax policy to dictate the dimensions of religion, and to limit what a religious leader can say. It is a plain, facial, stark infringement of the free exercise of religion.
If, however, the entirety of the First Amendment was followed there would be no problem. There would be no tax breaks to lose!
Not only does the government infringe the exercise of religious politics, it establishes apolitical religion as a higher and more deserving class of religion!
Craziness.
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