By APRIL STONE, Press Staff Writer
Friday, April 8, 2005 5:42 PM CDT
Local clergy don't show the same support as U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn on legislation that would allow politics to be mentioned in church sermons without fear of losing tax-exempt status.
Many church leaders from the Cherokee County area are not in favor of "The Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act," H.R. 235, which Coburn claims would help preserve "our freedom." Coburn expressed his strong support of the bill, written by U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and said Americans are required "to defend the right of moral and spiritual leaders to speak out on issues of justice and morality without fear of coercion from their own government."
The current law, established in 1954, was proposed by Sen. Lyndon Johnson. It gives the Internal Revenue Service the right to punish a church if it explicitly endorses or opposes a political candidate. The IRS cannot destroy a church for breaking this law, but the church could lose its tax-exempt status. <snip>
"I'm not for it," said one local minister. "I firmly believe in the separation between church and state." <snip>
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