Trump's Religious Liberty Executive Order Is a Triumph of Fake News
The Christian Right invented a non-existent problem: persecution by the government. By focusing on that, the president may have undermined their campaign against LGBT people.
JAY MICHAELSON
05.04.17 12:53 PM ET
President Donald Trumps Executive Order on Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty is the triumph of fake news.
The order does not allow greater discrimination against LGBT people by those with a religious excuse. That absence speaks volumes, and may well portend a significant transformation in LGBT equality. But what the order does do is solves two problems that simply do not exist.
First, the order effectively nullifies the 1954 law called the Johnson Amendment, by directing the IRS to not enforce it. The law forbids all tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, including churches, from engaging in political campaigns, endorse candidates, or collect contributions to a political campaign.
Oh and guess what: the IRS hasnt been enforcing the Johnson Amendment against pastors anyway. Since 2008, theyve only audited one one pastor for violating the law, and even he wasnt punished. And during that time, the religious liberty group Alliance Defending Freedom has been promoting Pulpit Freedom Sundays, encouraging pastors to openly break the law. Trumps order changes nothing.
According to the Christian Rights fake news machine, this common-sense law has muzzled the free speech rights of pastors, who cant say anything political from the pulpit. Actually, thats not true at all. Pastors can (and do) still talk politics, they just cant overtly endorse a candidate. And remember, the law actually applies to all nonprofits, not just churches. This non-issue is just hysteria-mongering among national Christian Right organizations, designed to gin up outrage and to allow them, not churches, to endorse political candidates.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/04/trump-s-religious-liberty-executive-order-is-a-triumph-of-fake-news