Rap Sheet
Links on R&P from around the web
Let My Preachers Endorse: A Modest Church-State Proposal
posted on November 21, 2012At Religion Dispatches, Michael Leo Owens writes that the Freedom from Religion Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the IRS for their failure to crack down on churches that endorse political candidates from the pulpit, a move that is against IRS rules on tax-exempt status. Owens, however, offers a solution to the problem: allow churches that wish to endorse candidates to change their tax status from a charitable organization to a social welfare organization. “Since the electioneering ban isn’t a problem for the majority of congregations they should keep their conventional status as charitable. For others, allow them to change their status,” Owens writes.