|
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
 | ||||||||
 | ||||||||
|
|
||||||||
|
This Joke is Funny Because...
08 September 2008Sharlet: Fred Clarkson of the anti-religious right site Talk2Action told me a couple of days ago that this story would be coming today. Fred thinks the story is huge; I'm skeptical. What's the story? Well, that's the problem. It's complicated. You see, under 1954 amendment to the tax codes, tax exempt organizations are not allowed to engage in partisan politics. That includes churches. But they do, of course, and now a Christian Right group, the Alliance Defense Fund, wants to legalize the reality by organizing "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," on which conservative pastors in 20 states will openly defy the law and, probably, create a test case. This has already been reported, to little fanfare. According to Fred, the big news is that three former IRS muck-a-mucks have joined forces with liberal clergypeople to try to block the event from happening. Outraged? You probably should be -- we're talking about the money machine of the Christian Right -- but I'm guessing you aren't, because I barely understand what I've just written myself. Most people don't know that churches aren't allowed to talk politics. So news of a bid to stop a bid to overturn the ban requires the journalistic equivalent of explaining why a joke is funny. It's hard to get outraged over defiance of a law you didn't know existed. Maybe I'm wrong.If Fred's right -- if the story has legs -- I'll send $10 in Fred's name to the organization trying to stop the ADF from trying to overturn. Only, the organization doesn't seem to have a name...
|
|
