“A sin, is a sin, is a sin.”
That’s what I was taught as a child in my Sunday school class. In other words, no other sin is above any other. So telling a lie, for example, is no different than committing an act of mass murder.
Even then that comparison didn’t make sense to me, but then again, neither did the story about the creation of a human being out of one man’s rib.
I recall asking my teacher at church about breaking the law, as in speeding or trespassing. She informed me that breaking man’s law is the same as breaking God’s law, according to the dusty book of Romans.
“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established,” is how Romans 13:1 reads. The following verses say, “The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”
According to that logic a term I use loosely here a whole lot of pastors have some explaining to do this election season. That’s because on Oct. 7, nearly 2,000 pastors publicly and proudly broke the law. They didn’t break the law to correct a wrong, like free a slave or prevent an authority figure from discriminating against a minority.
No, they willingly broke The Johnson Amendment, which bans churches and ministers from participating in or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition of any candidate or office. It’s a form of separation of church and state, which many church leaders argue doesn’t exist, especially when it comes to schools and prayer, for example.
This same amendment prevents the government from taxing religious institutions. The deal is simple. Keep your nose out of politics and the government won’t bother you for taxes. Decide you want to be political and get ready to fork over a percentage of your earnings.
As we near the Nov. 6 election, the political rhetoric is at an all-time high and, left-leaning politicians are the target of religious ridiculousness, especially those candidates who either support marriage equality or a woman’s right to choose her own health care.
The pastors were instructed to deliberately apply biblical perspectives to the positions of candidates for public office in defiance of a regulation adopted by the Internal Revenue Service in 1954. By arguing that a candidate is not following God’s will, these pastors hope to provoke a challenge from the IRS that would enable it file a lawsuit and defeat the regulation in court on constitutional grounds.
These men and women who supposedly champion love, peace and salvation for humanity have a reputation for hate speech. Granted, some congregations are not of the same mold as the right-wing Christian groups who constant fight equality for LGBTs, minorities as a whole and the personal rights of others. And lumping them all together would be unfair.
But the actions of the far-right continue to give religious institutions a black eye, especially in this election cycle. And for many of us who were raised in a church, it brings questions about the fundamentals we were taught as children.
Pastors argue that political speech is a First Amendment issue, and that preventing the pulpit from voicing political views violates freedom of speech and religion. That’s simply untrue. Religious folks are free to share their political views, just not in a religious setting like Sunday School, for instance. They are free to attend candidate rallies or to discuss politics with neighbors and friends outside of the church walls.
But doing so within the church, or breaking a law set so clearly by the government, breaks the laws of man and God.
The wonderful thing about man’s law, compared to laws that some believe were created by a deity, is that man’s laws can evolve and be open for discussion. Many who believe in God’s laws will only offer flexibility in their translation if it is personally beneficial
It’s another example of cherry-picking the Bible in order to make it serve a specific purpose. And it seems that during an election year, actively participating in any sin to get progress-thinking officials removed is acceptable.
