USA Today, Pastors Plan to 'Bait' IRS with Pulpit Politics:

On Sunday, a group of 100 preachers nationwide will step into the pulpit and say the only words they're forbidden by law from speaking in a church.

They plan to use the pulpit as a platform for political endorsements, flouting a federal law that threatens churches with the loss of their nonprofit status if they stray too far into partisan politics.

While other church and nonprofit leaders cringe at the deliberate mix of the secular and the religious, participants in the annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday protest hope this act of deliberate lawbreaking will lead to a change in the law.

Alliance Defense Fund:

• The Pulpit Initiative: Executive Summary
• The Pulpit Initiative: FAQ
• The Pulpit Initiative: White Paper
• The Pulpit Initiative: What It Is — What It's Not 
• Guidelines for "Political Activities" for Churches and Pastors

Following up on yesterday's post, Pastors for ObamaCare?:  Everyday Christian, President Obama Calls Pastors To Preach Healthcare:

Earlier this week on a conference call, President Obama and his top healthcare officials charged religious leaders across America with spreading a new kind of gospel – the good news of nationalized healthcare. Isn’t it convenient how the pulpit is barred from promoting political opinion, until it is the opinion of the President?  According to Politico, “Obama instructed faith leaders to treat the new law as settled fact and use their perches of power to convey that message to congregants and friends.” …

Ironically, or perhaps not, this Sunday September 26 marks the Alliance Defense Fund’s third annual “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” during which 100 pastors nationwide will exercise their right to free religious expression. Participants will preach sermons related to biblical perspectives on positions of electoral candidates or current government officials. This is despite and in response to an IRS rule that is often used to bully the pulpit into silence.

Preachers spoke freely from the pulpit until 1954 when Congress passed a tax code amendment that prohibits any speech favoring or opposing a political candidate. According to the ADF, ever since the Johnson Amendment was added to the Federal Tax Code, the IRS has increased its guidance of the law – and its vagueness. The IRS now investigates churches for politically-charged discourse, and threatens many with the loss of tax-exemptions. Such surveillance and intimidation has stifled many pastors in fear.

ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley said, “Rather than risk confrontation, many pastors have self-censored their speech, afraid to apply the teachings of Scripture to specific candidates or elections. As in years past, the participants in Pulpit Freedom Sunday 2010 are taking a stand against being intimidated into sacrificing their First Amendment rights.”

Stanley added, "ADF is not trying to get politics into the pulpit; we want to get government out of the pulpit.” But “government in the pulpit” seems to be exactly what Obama desires – “government in the pulpit” to censor pastors’ voices, except when they praise the President’s agenda.

Press and blogosphere coverage:

• ABA News, 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday' to Defy IRS
• Belief Net, You Can't Say That in Church: All About "Pulpit Freedom Sunday"
• CBN News, Pastors to Challenge IRS on 'Pulpit Freedom Sunday'
• The Huffington Post, Why the Campaign for Politics in the Pulpit Is a Bad Idea
• New American, Pulpit Freedom Sunday Confronts IRS