IRS to Monitor Sermons as Part of Settlement with Atheists

Tim Brown

The Internal Revenue Service settled a lawsuit brought by the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF). The 2012 lawsuit was settled after the IRS agreed to monitor what is said in houses of worship, something that is a clear violation of the First Amendment, since no law can be written by Congress to this effect. Therefore, the "unconstitutional" IRS has gone way beyond what the federal Constitution allows.

 

The Wisconsin group brought the lawsuit because it said the IRS was ignoring complaints about churches violating their tax-exempt statuses. Specifically, FFRF said many churches promote political issues, legislation, and/or candidates from the pulpit in violation of the 1954 Johnson Amendment, which requires that non-profits not endorse candidates..........According to FFRF, the IRS has not followed a 2009 ruling requiring it to hire someone to keep an eye on church politicking. The IRS says it hasn't ignored the ruling, but merely failed to follow it......Senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom Erik Stanley said, "The IRS has no business censoring what a pastor preaches from the pulpit."  ADF is seeking to "bring the era of IRS censorship and intimidation to an end by challenging the Johnson Amendment, which imposes unconstitutional restrictions on clergy speech.".....
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My Take – What is the origin of the Johnson Amendment?  First of all when anyone looks into Johnson's history you can only come away with one conclusion.  He was among the most corrupt politicians in American history, including his first run for the Senate in 1948 which though election fraud he won via the "The Dead, the Halt, the Unaware."  This wasn't the first time in history but it was considered "brazen theivery". 

 

This is clearly a Constitutional violation at the worst because Johnson's goal was to save the left wing of the Democratic Party in Texas since there were so many speaking out against his leftist agenda.  We’ve come to believe this prohibition is normal and natural, but for all of American history before 1954 the religious leaders in America spoke out constantly about issues facing the nation, which is evidenced in the adoption of the Bill of Rights – the first ten amendments to the Constitution – which was promoted by New England’s religious leaders. 

 

The Johnson Amendment is nothing more than a corrupt effort to control the views expressed by conservative Christians, since it clearly isn't being enforced against leftist preachers, and clearly is not only a violation of the letter of the Constitution, it goes way beyond violating the spirit of the Constitution, with the goal of creating as many low information - easily swayed by slick TV advertising - voters as possibly.    

 

However, if everyone really wants freedom from intrusion by the IRS, eliminate the tax code as it exist, adopt a national sales tax on products with no exemptions so that everyone has skin in the game, and eliminate the IRS.  It really isn’t that complicated!

 

Click here to read a scholarly history of the Johnson Amendment.