{"id":27231,"date":"2017-04-17T12:37:11","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T19:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=27231"},"modified":"2017-04-17T12:37:11","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T19:37:11","slug":"gutting-the-establishment-clause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/17\/gutting-the-establishment-clause\/","title":{"rendered":"Gutting the Establishment Clause"},"content":{"rendered":"

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees the free practice of Religion, but forbids any government attempts to establish a state religion by giving it preferential treatment over others.  In violation of the Constitution, Trump promised to make pseudo-Christians more powerful, if they ignored his ongoing perversions and helped install him as Fuhrer.  Now Lyin’ Ryan is giving them their reward.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"church-state\"The Washington Post reported on Friday that congressional Republicans are including repeal of the Johnson Amendment in their draft \u201ctax reform\u201d bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Johnson Amendment is a decades-old legal restriction that prevents churches, like other tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, from explicitly endorsing or opposing candidates for political office. As part of his bid for Religious Right support<\/a> in the presidential campaign, Trump had promised to make conservative Christians more politically powerful<\/a> by eliminating it.<\/p>\n

The idea that this restriction has stifled the voice of conservative Christians in the public arena is, of course, ridiculous. Right-wing evangelicals and their conservative Catholic allies have vast access to the airways and the public through media empires and political organizations, and they were among Trump\u2019s biggest boosters.<\/a><\/p>\n

Churches already have the right to talk about issues, register voters, and even distribute voter guides produced by right-wing groups. Repealing the Johnson Amendment could turn some churches into political machines that launder donations from politically-minded donors as tax-exempt religious contributions.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a terrible idea. As the Post notes, more than 4,500 nonprofits recently urged congressional leaders not to weaken or repeal the amendment<\/a>. Earlier this month, nearly 100 religious and denominational groups, including PFAW\u2019s African American Ministers in Action, sent their own letter<\/a> telling congressional leaders not to make houses of worship \u201canother cog in a political machine or another loophole in campaign finance laws.\u201d People For the American Way is among dozens of nonprofit groups who signed a March letter<\/a> saying the restriction has \u201chelped maintain the integrity and autonomy of our religious and charitable sectors and preserve the boundary separating church and state.\u201d…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From <Right Wing Watch<\/a>><\/font><\/p>\n

Giving pseudo-Christian Dominionists more power over the state is only the first step they plan.  The second is to use the state to force their piety codes onto YOU.<\/font><\/p>\n

RESIST!!<\/font><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees the free practice of Religion, but forbids any government attempts to establish a state religion by giving it preferential treatment over others.  In violation of the Constitution, Trump promised to make pseudo-Christians more powerful, if they ignored his ongoing perversions and helped install him […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-religion","category-5-id","category-47-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}