That's right, Sooner fans, you too can be an Oklahoma Theocrat. All you have to do is urge your (conservative) minister to make a political endorsement from the pulpit.
Who needs dumb ole separation of church and state?
Everybody in Soonerland is Christian, right? They aren't? You mean we have Heathens living among us? Jews? Buddhists? Muslins? Hindus?
Holy Cow! (pun intended)
We mention all this because an Edmond minister named Paul Blair endorsed Rep. Mary Fallin for governor. (God is a well-known Republican, after all. Just ask Pat Robertson.)
Trouble is, pulpit endorsements run afoul of federal law, which prohibits non-profit churches from supporting or opposing political candidates. Rev. Blair did it in order to provoke a court battle, his way of challenging the law.
Blair is wrong for very compelling reasons, as noted above. The U.S. may be many things to many people, but it is not and never has been a theocracy.
Theocracies have this nasty habit of trying to purge (read: persecute) the non-believers, an evil which this nation would do well to avoid.
4 comments:
“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.”
- Ghandi
Do you happen to know exactly which federal law that violates? It would be nice to know.
It's an IRS regulation that to retain tax-exempt status churches may not electioneer from the pulpit.
Anyone have good figures on how much revenue could be derived from simply taxing churches on their incomes?
How about taxing most televangelists? That category has always been a magnet for grifters and people who like to get rich and operate outside the law.
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