Mumbling Republican Blog

A person I have gotten to know fairly well over the years has submitted this letter to the local weekly paper.

Dear Editor

Preparing to go the local political caucuses on February 2nd, I checked the Secretary of State’s website to find the locations of each party’s caucus. The Republican Party caucus was scheduled at Bethel Assembly Church out by the hospital. During the summer of 2008, the Warroad Community Church had their pastor, Gus Booth, endorsing John McCain from the pulpit. A year earlier, I read a Sunday Bulletin from the Fosston Baptist Church relating Hilary Clinton to a verse from Corinthians with the word “Hilarity”. There was no corresponding reference of a verse about a Burning Bush to George Bush or any other clever political use of the Bible that I saw in that particular bulletin.

Political partisan activities by churches organized under 26 CFR 1.501(c)(3)-1 relating to organizations operated for religious purposes and Section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code can lose a church it’s tax-exempt status. The Warroad church may still face loss of tax-exempt status when technical Amendments published in Federal Register, Vol. 74, No. 149, Wednesday, August 5, 2008/ Proposed Rules, pages 39003-39007, are finalized. Various determinative tests in these regulations include context of a church partisanship activity, endorsement or criticism in an official publication of the organization, provision of mailing lists for partisan purposes and use of the assets of the organization provided only on a partisan basis to candidates in the same elections.

U.S. Constitution Amendment 1 says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the freedom of press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” U.S. Constitution, Article 6, Paragraph 3 expands this separation of church and state by prohibiting a religious test: “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

Some consider this a flaw or wrongful understanding of how our country was set up. In a June 27, 2005 ruling on the Ten Commandments, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said, “Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?”

It was in a January 1, 1802 letter President Thomas Jefferson sent to the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury Connecticut that the phrase “separation of church and state” first appeared. The Baptist Association had written to President Jefferson regarding a “rumor that a particular denomination was soon to be recognized as the national denomination.” Jefferson responded to calm their fears that the federal government would not establish any denomination as the National Denomination writing, “The First Amendment has erected a wall of separation between Church and State.”

It is historical irony that Jefferson, third President, and Madison, 4th President, were both from the Democratic Republicans established in 1792. That political party split into factions in 1824. This example of common origins is like that of the Jews and Arabs whose ancestral patriarch was Abraham who realized there was only one God for all of us. But, the Jews and Arabs each created their own religions, factions, conflicts and brutalities. Even before Abraham, religious faith persecution was one of the original sins when Cain killed Able.

The Christian religion itself established a preference for division of church and state in Mathew 22. There, Christ was asked, “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Christ told them to show him the coin used for paying the tax. When brought a coin, he asked, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” When they replied that is was Caesars, he said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

Christ was also asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” to which he replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Clearly, this spiritual law would favor equally shared health care under U.S. law.

Joseph Farah, WorldNetDaily Founder, CEO & Editor In Chief, spoke at the TEA Party convention in Nashville Tennessee. Farah was opposed to national health care reform saying it was against “free enterprise”. I am not sure if WorldNetDaily is a Nationalist Socialist organization, but Farah went on to urge TEA Party activists to think beyond winning congressional elections in November and “take over not only the political institutions, but the cultural institutions, like the press, the entertainment industry, the universities, and yes the churches.” He added that substantial progress had been made in doing just that already.

Political free speech in church loses the tax-exempt status under U.S. law. People like Joseph Farah would exploit the very conflicts that are the very reason for a separation of church and state. It is dangerous to forget that reality.

This letter contains an interesting mix of governmental and spiritual law. Although we sometimes forget that not everyone thinks like ourselves, at other times we may forget that people do think a lot like ourselves and know the danger of intermixing politics and religion. But, how do we know the difference?

Radio UpNorth