What is Pulpit Freedom Day?

You're right.

I'm from Minnesota and there's a pastor up in Warroad, MN, who is going to endorse John McCain from the pulpit. There have been several news crews covering that.

The big deal is that what he's doing is not a legal thing for a non-profit to do. If churches want to be tax exempt, they cannot be politicking this way. Pulpit Freedom Day is going to challenge this law as a "freedom of speech" issue.

I hope the IRS revokes his tax exempt status.

It's an illegal protest on behalf of a handful of churches (I think around 30 in all - most churches and all synagogues and Mosques in the US rejected the idea as un-American).

Basically, the law says that a house of worship can either be tax-free, or politically active, but not both. Which makes perfect sense - if a religious institution wants to influence the laws of this country, they should be required to pay taxes just like every other citizen. On the other hand, if they want to take in donations from people in the name of G-d, and not pay taxes on those dollars - often millions of dollars a year, in the case of megachurches - then they have no right to use that money to try and dictate American policies - the people donating presumably were giving to G-d or to help toward salvation, or to help maintain their church, not to contribute toward some political candidate.

But a few powerful churches now believe they are above the law, and should be allowed to keep their money AND try to put a candidate in office who is amenable to their views. They are hoping that they are sued by the government for nonpayment of taxes, so they can appeal to the Supreme Court and try to tear down the law.

On a personal level, I hope the IRS shuts them all down tomorrow the way they do to ordinary Americans who don't pay taxes. I am religious and I believe that tax-exempt status for religious institutions is important - but not at the expense of upholding the Constitution.