Pulpit politics

Religion | Pastors who endorse candidates fight to keep their tax exemption; others say that's not what the church should be about | Alisa Harris

Ana Venegas/The Orange County Register/Zuma Press/Newscom

The people in Curt Parker's pews are used to hearing politics from the pulpit. Parker, the pastor of First Baptist Church of Avoca in New York, makes a habit of speaking out on political issues. So when he endorsed Sen. John McCain from the pulpit on Sept. 30, it was nothing new. Parker has endorsed candidates before.

This time, though, Parker joined 30 other pastors nationwide in a controversial move to provoke IRS investigations and incite a Supreme Court case, as part of the Alliance Defense Fund's Pulpit Freedom Initiative. The pastors endorsed or condemned candidates in defiance of an IRS regulation that prohibits pastors from making pulpit endorsements if they want to keep their church's tax-exempt status. While the ADF condemns the regulation as a violation of the free exercise of religion, others see legal and theological objections to pastoral endorsements.