by Anthony Martin
As The Examiner reported Monday, the IRS entered into an agreement with an atheist group to monitor pastors and churches in order to “catch” suspected offenders of engaging in “unacceptable” speech from the pulpits across America. The agency threatens to revoke the tax exempt status of churches that point out government infractions against Biblical teaching, particularly politicians and candidates that support points of view that are in direct violation of clear moral and ethical precepts in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
But the pastors of these churches, which happen to be some of the largest megachurches in America, say they plan on banding together to defy the IRS on the annual “Freedom of the Pulpit Sunday” coming up in October. According to several spokesmen within the pulpit freedom movement, the pastors will inform their congregants that IRS spies may be in the congregation that day and that they, the pastors, have no intention of adhering to the rules of the IRS that demand that they cease from preaching on homosexuality, gay marriage, abortion, and other hot topics. The plan is for the pastors to dare the IRS agents to come forward and arrest them on the spot so that all of America can see what a farce the federal government has become.
America has always stood for complete freedom of speech in the pulpit, and it has always been assumed that pastors will hit public issues hard when the Bible addresses those issues head-on. This is fully exhibited in our history. Pastors were among the first to openly call for independence from Britain. Pastors were also among the first to condemn the practice of slavery, which ultimately led to its abolition. The church is under no obligation whatsoever to adhere to politically correct speech or to refrain from addressing ethical, moral, and public issues that are addressed in the Bible.
But progressive/totalitarian tyrants wish to silence the voice of preachers and churches unless they endorse the actions of the modern collectivist government in America. Such a move would solidify the control that the government increasingly exercises on its citizens.
The unanswered question in the midst of all of this is how the IRS came to work in tandem with an overtly atheist group, Freedom From Religion Foundation, to hamstring churches. But one does not have to look very far to find the answer. The atheists have one thing in common with the Obama IRS. They want to prevent conservative Americans from engaging in free speech when that speech may condemn the actions of a rogue president and government. The atheists also wish to prevent conservative Christians from speaking out. The one public forum left for religious Americans to hear the issues of the day addressed from a Biblical perspective is the church. Take that away, or muzzle pastors, and Americans will never hear anything about how thoroughly this nation has descended into the moral and ethical abyss, so much so that many pastors and Christian teachers say that one day the heavy hand of divine retribution will descend on this nation as never before in our history.
Even in an era such as this in which decadence and debauchery are rampant, the moguls of the collectivist machine and its puppets in the White House, the Congress, and Supreme Court have made it abundantly clear that not only has lying to the citizens become widespread but that this should be expected. This is the “new norm.” We are mislead, lied to, and tricked with daily regularity, and yet it seems the majority of citizens can’t get enough of it. “Give us more, give us more,” they seem to scream at the top of their lungs. As long as they get their fix at the hands of taxpayers in the form of living off the public dole, they don’t care. In fact, if the lies result in more loot for the entitled masses, then lie some more, lie more blatantly.
The church must be able to address these issues with complete freedom, freedom that has nothing whatsoever to do with tax exemption. In a free country like ours, you don’t have to pay the government for the right to free speech. The minute we have to pay for it means we are surely not free but are living as subjects, slaves to an all-powerful centralized government complex.
This is part of what the pastors will be saying on Pulpit Freedom Sunday. We refuse to pay the IRS for the freedom to speak without limitation from the government. And we will say whatever we want, no matter what the government says. For surely the vast majority of citizens today need to hear in no uncertain terms that spiritual principles give plenty of guidance about the issues facing America, and one can rest assured that it is not consistent with what our government and politicians are doing.
There are other things, however, that local churches can do to thwart this shameful, totalitarian, and oppressive operation of the IRS to spy on churches and monitor their speech. Appoint a special team that will keep watch on all parking lots. Make notes, better yet, videos, of who comes and who goes if they are not regulars. Get the tag numbers of the vehicles they drive. Get as much information as possible before the service begins. And if the local sheriff’s office or police force can help you with identifying the suspects, give the information to the pastor so that he can inform the entire congregation that members of the IRS are present in the service in order to spy on the church’s activities. He can even point them out to the rest of the congregation, if he knows where they are sitting.
You see, the government leviathan needs to know that we the people can do our own spying on government agents when they engage in oppressive and stupid actions such as monitoring the speech of pastors.
