From the Pulpit to Politics: Theocracy Destroys Democracy
Always an exemption, never accountability. This is what Faith does.
Imagine you’re caught breaking out a window with a baseball bat at the local grocery store. You’ve done this before, both on accident and on purpose depending on the day and your mood, and yet again, you’ve been caught. Bat in hand, you look up sheepishly as, rounding the corner you catch the gaze of your neighbor and their kids, the local grocer and proprietor, and worst of all, the local magistrate.
You’ve been busted. Again.
The group demands you explain yourself, astonished that you’d take a bat to a store window for as far as they can tell, no good reason. The property damage, the disturbance of the peace, and the threatening behavior have the now gathering townsfolk on edge and looking at you with suspicious. Now, you’ve been in this jam before, and you have an idea. Its bold, but it is crazy enough that it just might work.
“Friends, I understand that we have rules against property damage and threatening behavior, but you see, not only should I not be punished for this, but I also shouldn’t really have to pay for these damages”
The crowd gasps, the magistrate herself has her eyes bulging and covering her mouth at such an incredulous claim. The jaws of the townsfolk clench and the children shuffle closer to see what the adults are going to do to this person so obviously in the wrong.
You continue: “for you see, this was an act of faith. My religious convictions demand that I be able to act freely and it really isn’t proper for our government”, you nod to the magistrate, “to interfere in matters of faith. Surely we can see that this was an exercise of my precious freedoms and I ought not be compelled to mingle religious funds or actions with the public treasury”.
All tension is immediately gone. The magistrate claps you on the back and smiles wide, making comments about the sanctity of freedom of speech. The proprietor smiles sadly and shakes his head as he begins sweeping up the glass, muttering about acts of god and his insurance policy. The children look at each other with excited grins, having discovered a new way to get out of trouble if they are ever caught in a similar predicament.
Reading this it sounds ridiculous as if it’s some kind of dystopian set up in an anti-religious novel or a skit to show the incredulity of religious people. It would be ridiculous and funny if it wasn’t literally what is happening in the United States in regard to tax policy, sexual assault cases regarding statute of limitations , and even the deaths of people withholding medical care, religious beliefs are increasingly being used as a shield from the law that impacts everyone else. Even if it means blocking investigation and disclosure of sexual assault that they purport to dislike so much, churches have a long history of using faith to dodge public accountability.
Just this week the IRS released a statement that effectively ended the enforcement of the Johnston Amendment, the rule that forbade churches and pastors from endorsing candidates or parties from the pulpit. Granted, this rule was rarely enforced even when it was broken intentionally for this very purpose, but the mask of secular governance under republican leadership is slipping more and more every day. This means that churches can take money totally tax-free, never have to report who it came from or where it goes, and now use that money alongside their speech to endorse specific candidates or parties.
As if the dark money issue with churches as a passthrough wasn’t bad enough, now its not even going to be a secret – they can just take donations and use it for campaigning!
The entire purpose of tax free organizations was that they were operating in the interest of the public good and thus weren’t engaging in political speech or commerce. Yet, churches are explicitly not founded on the welfare of the public but rather on the welfare and sustenance of their own existence. Setting aside the god belief, could you imagine any other such nonprofit like say, the Animal Rescue League, Conservation Clubs, or even a group like Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers, soliciting funds for a cause then using that money to only attend fundraisers and donations for their favored candidates? And barring anyone from inquiring after where these funds go and whether they are fulfilling their public statements?
Absolutely not. Why should political speech become tax free and hidden simply because of the name on the sign outside the building? Yet, when it comes to churches somehow a supernatural legal shield is placed over them when it comes to following the rules or being held accountable.
Freedom of speech and freedom of religion mean freedom FROM religion and allowing churches to operate tax-free while also influencing partisan policy for their own narrow goals is essentially subsidizing churches in the public square. This should absolutely end. If churches wish to influence policy in the way they have continuously done for decades, then they should lose their tax-free status, just as any other organization that violated the tax-free guidelines of a 501©3. There should be transparency and accountability for influencing political and partisan behavior and just like any secular group, they should have to file the same forms and follow the same protocols as any everyone else.
Otherwise, like in the window breaking story above, their reach will grow ever more broad and be ever more pernicious. Claims of faith would be seen as equal to claims on evidence or backed up in reality, something that is inherently extremely dangerous. Political parties will simply set up a church to hide their activism and donors and there truly wouldn’t be any recourse for the public in holding policy makers accountable. If faith claims are seen as equal to deeds in the eyes of the law, then the law ceases to be useful as an arbiter of justice or a basis for a social contract. Faith claims would act as a shield even more than they already do for following the rules that everyone else has to, something that truly would spell the end of democracy and the rule of law.
This more and more seems to maybe be the point of injecting faith into secular governance, does it not?
Something there is that doesn’t love the wall of separation between church and state. The legislature in the State of Tennessee caused the frozen ground to swell under it, spilled the upper boulders in the sun, and made a gap that even two could pass abreast. On July 10, 1925, John Scopes, represented by Clarance Darrow, met to walk the line and set the wall between the state and the church once again.
Some of the stones are shaped like loaves and others like balls, and a spell is needed to make them balance: “Congress shall make no law…”
Something there is that doesn’t love this wall that wants it down. Elves? No, not elves. Preachers and scalawags and rogue politicians. Something there is that doesn’t love the wall. Let’s put the stones back in place and utter our spell — “Congress shall make no law…” so that they stay put for another season.
Good fences make good neighbors.
I totally agree with you! Excellent posting!