Walker decries “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,”
attempt to politicize houses of worship

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An effort to recruit dozens of pastors to endorse political candidates from the pulpit on Sept. 28 is a misguided idea and a brazen attempt to blend the worship of God with electoral politics, said a Baptist leader, constitutional scholar and church-state expert.

J. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said the Alliance Defense Fund’s plan to provoke investigations of these houses of worship by the Internal Revenue Service could risk the tax exempt status of the churches. ADF lawyers likely would then challenge the investigations in court.

Walker told the Fox News Channel in an interview Saturday that the ADF’s “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” is a misnomer because pulpits already are free in this country.

Preachers are perfectly free to interpret and apply Scripture as they see fit, speak out on the great moral and ethical issues of the day, and urge good citizenship practices, such as registering to vote and voting, Walker said. The only thing they can’t do — in exchange for the most favored tax exempt status — is to tell the faithful how to vote.

Walker later said Pulpit Freedom Sunday is a misguided idea because it is divisive, corrosive and unnecessary.

“In every church I know of it would be like setting off a bomb shell in the sanctuary for the preacher to tell the congregants how to pull the lever in the voting booth,” Walker said. “It would be incredibly corrosive of the church’s true mission to spread the gospel and be salt and light in the culture. As soon as the church throws in with a particular candidate or party, its prophetic edge is blunted. You can’t raise a prophet’s fist at a candidate or party when, with the other arm, you are locked in a tight bear hug.

“Third, Pulpit Freedom Sunday is entirely unnecessary. There is no ground swell of enthusiasm for it. In fact, a recent survey reveals that more than half think religion and politics generally have become too closely tied (52 percent). The number is even higher when asked about the specific practice of endorsing from the pulpit.”

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