Just to close this chapter once and for all, I wanted to mention that the GOP plan to let churches work on behalf of political candidates died in committee yesterday. In fact, the vote against the proposal was unanimous.
The House Ways and Means Committee has killed a proposal that was intended to give clergy members freedom to endorse candidates for political office without endangering the tax-exempt status of their congregations.
The provision, titled “Safe Harbor for Churches,” was removed from a corporate tax bill during a committee markup of the legislation Monday night, staff members said.
I wish this was an example of lawmakers taking church-state separation seriously and/or being overwhelmed by the persuasiveness of civil liberties arguments. The truth is, however, this proposal was killed because the far right didn’t like it either.
Speaker Hastert’s office admitted last week that a “growing number of clergy” had contacted the GOP leader to express concerns about the bill. More importantly, the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination and the most politically influential in GOP circles, sent House members a letter opposing the measure.
The Rev. Richard D. Land, head of the convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said the language is “loose enough that it could be interpreted to broaden the restrictions” on political speech by clergy members, rather than loosening them. “This is a case in which the cure is worse than the disease,” Land said.
When the right and left hate an idea with equal enthusiasm, the idea goes away.