Here’s the question we asked UFI readers:
“Is it helpful to the cause of religious freedom to have clergy and congregation participate in ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday’?”
Here’s how readers responded:
82 percent Yes
9 percent No
9 percent Unsure
There wasn’t a huge response to this poll question and we suspect that it is because few people understood what “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” is all about. During October each year hundreds of pastors and preachers join in “a calculated act of civil disobedience aimed squarely at the IRS.”
Their goal is to draw attention to what they believe is an unconstitutional law in the tax code that stops them from addressing political candidates and controversial policy issues from the pulpit. These pastors are hoping the IRS will come after them and then the tax code law can be challenged.
These pastors and the legal groups supporting them are confident that they can get the law overturned and once again allow all pastors to always speak freely in their own churches. What is interesting is that the numbers who participate in “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” has been increasing each year (more than 1500 this year) and yet none of the pastors have been challenged by the IRS. These pastors even send video tapes of their sermons to the IRS!
We at UFI make no claim as to knowing whether or not this approach is good or bad, but we were curious to see what our readers think.