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The religious right's hypocrisy now on full display

bym051d said:
Churches that advocate for a political candidate should lose all tax free advantages.
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They already do per the Johnson Amendment. The problem is that churches side-step this by campaigning for issues/values. While a church can't endorse or denigrate a candidate fully, they can push a pro-life, or whatever issue might clearly mark which candidate they are endorsing without using their name. A pastor can endorse/campaign for an individual on their own time, as long as they don't do it on behalf of their church or from the pulpit.

Case in point, I was almost fired because I had an Obama yard sign in '08 (which is fine), but the pastor went above and beyond to expose that only a pro-life candidate is the "Christian" option when voting - this is also legal because he limited himself to speaking about an issue instead of a candidate (even though it was a strong endorsement of McCain).

I actually don't have an issue with churches campaigning for issues or people as faith communities should be involved in shaping politics of its congregation and talking about the intersection of faith and communal political life. My biggest issue is that to receive preferential tax status, a church should have to justify its benefit to the community - that funds are invested in programs beyond evangelism, sectarian practices, or other events whose main effect is just enlarging the church/benefitting its members.
 
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CHillDeac said:
He made a campaign stop in October 2020 @ The International Church of Las Vegas. Dropped a few $20's in the offering bucket.



Longer version shows how bored he was

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If that's his tithe, then he's worth about what I figured he was.
 
bym051d said:
Yeah, they're supposed to.
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The minister at my parent's Baptist Church (a Liberty U. grad) gave an entire sermon this summer about the evils of the Johnson Amendment, which he claimed was designed to "intimidate" churches from engaging in politics and "speaking the truth from Scripture" (always a favorite Baptist phrase) to all those misguided, sinful folks out there during election campaigns (he didn't say Democrats, but it was obvious that was what he meant.) My parents have generally avoided going to church during the pandemic, even after they were vaccinated, so they listen to his sermons at home on their laptop. On another Sunday he gave a sermon begging people not to follow "Progressive Christianity" because it's a false, "non-Biblical" version of Christianity and will lead you down the wrong path. His church, he said, just followed the Bible and the "truth" of the Scriptures. I'm sure there are many churches with similar pastors who give similar sermons all the time, and especially in election years.
 
Sirdeacsalot said:
Jesus was a Liberal.
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Yet churches have never been wholly liberal. I think that's milhouse's point. The religious leaders of Jesus' day basically co-oped Jesus and kept on with business as usual.
 
For any conservative who just looks at the source and dismisses it, listen to what the guy actually says in the video. We're getting close to Halloween, so I guess this fits the season.

 
PhDeac said:
Yet churches have never been wholly liberal. I think that's milhouse's point. The religious leaders of Jesus' day basically co-oped Jesus and kept on with business as usual.
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First they killed him though.
 
PhDeac said:
Yet churches have never been wholly liberal. I think that's milhouse's point. The religious leaders of Jesus' day basically co-oped Jesus and kept on with business as usual.
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Here and there, but really so after a couple of hundred years and Constantine. Once one could be aligned with Christianity and power/wealth/the oppressors, the ideology changed.
 
Sounds like it’s time to revisit that thread about playing Liberty and non-consensually shove this down the liberty defenders throats.
 
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