7 ms·
This is a little tricky. A church cannot voice a political opinion, if they want to keep their 501 tax exemption. They can voice their opinions (1st amendment)
by djsumdog 6y ago
This is a little tricky. A church cannot voice a political opinion, if they want to keep their 501 tax exemption. They can voice their opinions (1st amendment) but they'd give up those specific tax exemptions and would need to move to a different charity type. (This is why the ACLU has two organizations, one you can donate to with tax exemption and the other you cannot because they lobby the government).
- CivBase 6y agoIs there anything wrong with a church abandoning their 501 tax exemption and voicing a political opinion?
- tssva 6y agoThere isn't but unfortunately what has been happening lately is churches have been voicing political opinion and not losing their 501 tax exemption because the politicians they have been speaking in favor of protect them from losing their tax status.
- triceratops 6y agoNothing wrong. They'd have to pay taxes. That would be a bummer for most organizations.
- hnick 6y agoThe way around this seems to be for politicians to voice religious opinions, which makes some things that churches say de facto political opinions. Seems like it should be banned on their side too, but that's a bit thorny.
- mattkrause 6y agoExactly. A minister (etc) can certainly say "Dancing (or whatever) is a grave sin and so we must avoid it ourselves and work to keep it out of our community." Stuff like this is protected as Free (Religious) Exercise clause and it should be. It may so happen that only one candidate vehemently opposes dancing, and as long as they don't make that connection out loud, it stays on the level.