Peanut Gallery: Special thanks to Teresa Rice at Catholibertarian for bringing this video to our attention. Please check out her blog here.
Category: Life in America
Pulpit Freedom Sunday: Pastors Stand Firm in Face of IRS Intimidation
Pulpit Freedom Sunday: Pastors Defy Tax Rules, Back Political Candidates
Nanette Byrnes (Reuters, October 7, 2012)
[Thanks to Public Catholic for the follow-up. Check it out here.]
Charlotte, USA – Baptist Pastor Mark Harris stood before his flock in North Carolina on Sunday and joined hundreds of other U.S. religious leaders in deliberately breaking the law in an election-year campaign that tests the role of churches in politics.
By publicly backing candidates for political office from the pulpit, Harris and nearly 1,500 other preachers at services across the United States were flouting a law they see as an incursion on freedom of religion and speech.
Under the U.S. tax code, non-profit organizations such as churches may express views on any issue, but they jeopardize their favorable tax-exempt status if they speak for or against any political candidate.
“Pulpit Freedom Sunday” has been staged annually since 2008 by a group called the Alliance Defending Freedom. Its aim is to provoke a challenge from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in order to file a lawsuit and have its argument out in court.
The event has grown steadily in size, but the IRS has yet to respond – even though the pastors tape their sermons and mail them to the agency.
Now in an election year, where a few swing states – including North Carolina – will be crucial, political analysts say pastors campaigning from the pulpit could have an impact. Continue reading “Pulpit Freedom Sunday: Pastors Stand Firm in Face of IRS Intimidation”
Abortion in the Black Community – Congressman Allen West’s Education Forum
Peanut Gallery: The Number One Killer of blacks in America is Planned Parenthood.
Special thanks to Alveda King for bringing this to our attention.
FRC: How would the Pope vote? I have no idea, however . . . .
Peanut Gallery: It’s always a tenuous exercise when a member of one religious group presumes to explain the religious tenets of another religious group. Nevertheless, Tom McClusky (FRC) has ventured into this minefield.
His purpose is to prep Catholics for tonight’s Vice-Presidential Debate by providing a quasi-Catholic scorecard to rate the candidates. His effort is timely and to the point – since both vice-presidential candidates self-identify as Roman Catholics.
But does it past Roman Catholic muster? I’ll let you be the judge. Check it out – click here. For background documents – click here.
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How would the Pope vote? I have no idea, however . . . .
5 October, 2012 (17:56) | Adoption, Child Tax Credit, Economics, Education, Health Care, Human Life & Bioethics, Human Sexuality, Marriage & Family, Presidential Race ’12, Religion & Society | By: Tom McClusky |
But we have tried to put together a document to give the decision for Catholics some perspective.
Many of you know how important every vote is this year, especially the Catholic vote. Here is a scorecard, from a Catholic perspective, on the two Vice Presidential candidates. And here you can find the accompanying document that goes further into Catholic Church teaching on each subject.
For the first time in American history, two Catholic vice presidential candidates are squaring off for America’s second highest office and while both Vice President Joe Biden and Representative Paul Ryan cite their shared faith in informing their positions, on many issues they could not be further apart.
To help clarify these differences in light of what the Catholic Church teaches, where they are permissible and where they are problematic, FRCAction has compiled a Catholic Voter guide. The guide is designed to help people of faith, Catholics as well as all Christians, Continue reading “FRC: How would the Pope vote? I have no idea, however . . . .”
Peanut Gallery: But not in time for this election… shame, shame!!
UPDATED 12:40 PM EDT Oct 10, 2012
A new South Carolina law that generally requires voters to show photo identification does not discriminate against racial minorities and can go into effect beginning in 2013, a federal court ruled on Wednesday, according to SC Attorney Alan Wilson.
Wilson issued the following statement in response to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia’s ruling in South Carolina v. United States.
“Today’s ruling by the three judge panel is a major victory for South Carolina and its election process. It affirms our voter ID law is valid and constitutional under the Voting Rights Act. The fact remains, voter ID laws do not discriminate or disenfranchise; they ensure integrity at the ballot box.
“This ruling also affirms South Carolina’s voter ID law should have been pre-cleared by the U.S. Justice Department.
“We will work diligently to implement this law for all…
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