Hundreds of pastors back political candidates, defy tax rules

[kwassa]

http://news.terra.com/hundreds-of-pastors-back-political-candidates-defy-tax-rules,4afad4b2bdd3a310VgnVCM20000099cceb0aRCRD.html

Baptist Pastor Mark Harris stood before his flock in North Carolina on Sunday and joined hundreds of other religious leaders in deliberately breaking the law in an election-year campaign that tests the role of churches in politics.

By publicly backing candidates for political office from the pulpit, Harris and nearly 1,500 other preachers at services across the United States were flouting a law they see as an incursion on freedom of religion and speech.


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"Pulpit Freedom Sunday" has been staged annually since 2008 by a group called the Alliance Defending Freedom. Its aim is to provoke a challenge from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in order to file a lawsuit and have its argument out in court.

The event has grown steadily in size, but the IRS has yet to respond - even though the pastors tape their sermons and mail them to the agency.

[rug]

1. That's an easy dare to take.

The IRS has tons more resources. To defuse this political stunt they can start the revocation of the exempt status on November 7.