Religion and Politics Mixology

Recently I preached a sermon on mixing religion and politics, which I firmly believe we should do. The gist of the sermon was that good citizens of God’s kingdom also make good citizens of their country when they apply the principles and teachings of their religion in their religious choices. That does not mean we all reach the same conclusion or should.

That is much different than saying churches or the spokespersons of religious groups should be endorsing candidates; that is just an abuse of office and also illegal. The magazine Christian Century found that out the hard way when it endorsed Lyndon Johnson and lost their tax-exempt status for a while. Billy Graham said he would “do all I can to help” in supporting Mitt Romney’s run for president. He got by with it but was investigated by the IRS, which is son Franklin called a waste of time and money. It wasn’t and he should have received the same treatment as Christian Century.

A lot of conservative groups such as the Tea Party are complaining about being scrutinized by the IRS unfairly. Religious groups need to watch their P’s and Q’s on this as any group. James Dobson should have had his ticket yanked long ago as he can’t stay out of politics. Hey, this is part of the separation of church and state we prize in this country, so follow the rules.

But the tricky part today comes from the IRS section 501 [c](4) deal with social welfare organizations. Many of these groups are skirting the separation of church and state saying the are just doing social welfare, but are really just shills giving vast amounts of money to the candidates of their choice without scrutiny.