Thursday, March 24, 2005

Yeah, that's what MLK was about...


By Patrick J. Buchanan WASHINGTON – On Oct. 19, 1960, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and 52 others were arrested in Rich's Department Store in Atlanta for refusing to leave a table in its restaurant. On Oct. 25, the 52 "sit-ins" were released

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Under the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act of 2005, the IRS code would be amended to permit priests, pastors, and rabbis to express their "personal views on political matters or elections for public office during regular religious services, so long as these views are not disseminated beyond the members and guests assembled together at the service."
Sunday services at black churches where candidates like Bill Clinton and John Kerry are embraced by preachers and pastors would be legal under US law. But so, too, would sermons from the pulpit by Catholic priests and Christian pastors who told congregations that abortion is the slaughter of the innocent and homosexual marriage is an abomination, and that they should vote for the candidate who will oppose them - be it George Bush or anyone else.

It's really bullshit to consider that political views should be legally given by a tax exempt organization. Not because we're"muzzling our religious leaders, who, like the prophets of old, have been ordained by God to hold rulers to account" like Buchanan suggests, but because it gives a false front. People believe their preachers are giving them advice based on their religion, once you add politics, your slipping the wool over people's eyes. Plus these organizations wouldn't have to declare their expendatures the same way a political organization would. It's just crap really.

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