Readers React: Churches and politics don’t mix

To the editor: Oklahoma’s attorney general is wrong to assert that religious leaders have a 1st Amendment right to “encourage their members to engage in the political process in a manner consistent with the core tenets of their religion” — while maintaining tax-exempt status. (“Keep politics out of the pulpit,” Editorial, Aug. 7)

I have the same 1st Amendment freedom, but I don’t get a tax exemption. So why should nonprofits?

The solution is simple: They need to choose. Do they want the same religious freedom every other taxpayer has, or do they want to keep their tax exemption?

Joseph Bonino, Glendale

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To the editor: It’s appalling to read that some churches feel they can do no constitutional wrong.

While they posit that the 1st Amendment permits them to make explicit political endorsements, they ignore the Constitution’s Article 6, which expressly mandates that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification” for any public office. That prohibition surely is as clear as any biblical stricture.

Verily, to encourage parishioners to vote for or against any specific candidate constitutes a cardinal constitutional sin. These churches should repent and pray for guidance to comply with our democracy’s venerable founding principles.

Meanwhile, I’ll pray (to no particular deity) that the IRS provides firm, timely guidance to these wayward churches.

Greg Gilbert, Cool, Calif.