[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16919-16920]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             FREE SPEECH BY RELIGIOUS LEADERS BEING DENIED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Jones) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JONES of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I am on the floor again 
tonight, as I have been for the last 2 or 3 weeks, to talk about the 
fact that in America today with all of our brave men and women fighting 
for freedom for the Iraqis and in Afghanistan and certainly to protect 
the American people, that yet in this country today a minister, a 
priest or a rabbi or cleric cannot speak freely about the politics and 
the moral issues of the day in America. I think that is a sad 
commentary on this great Nation.
  I want to briefly talk about the history of this issue. Prior to 
1954, there was never any restriction of speech on our ministers in 
this country or our rabbis or our priests until 1954. The Lyndon Baines 
Johnson amendment in the Senate, never debated, no hearings were held; 
and yet the Senate unanimously accepted the amendment by Senator 
Johnson that basically said if you are a 501(c)(3), you may not have 
political speech, and that means endorsement or opposition to a 
candidate.
  Well, I looked at the history of this, and I looked at the history of 
churches being qualified for a 501(c)(3). Never in any of the history 
that we looked upon was there any restriction of speech at all on the 
churches or synagogues or mosques in this country.
  The reason I bring this to the floor again tonight is because I 
believe sincerely if morality in this great Nation is to survive based 
on the Judeo-Christian principles that this Nation was founded upon, 
then the ministers, the priests and the rabbis and the clerics should 
be able to speak freely about the moral and political issues of the 
today without any restriction.
  The IRS is in charge of overseeing the speech of our churches, 
synagogues, and mosques. They testified 2 years ago they cannot even 
enforce the law. Yet, what we have today is a man named Barry Lynn with 
the Americans United that stands for the separation of church and 
State; and what he does is file a complaint, like he did in Colorado 4 
weeks ago. Bishop Sheridan, a Catholic Bishop, the diocese of Colorado 
Springs, wrote a pastoral letter, three pages to the Catholics in 
Colorado Springs, and reminded them that the Catholic Church stands for 
protecting the unborn, it stands against stem cell research, it stands 
against euthanasia; and all they did in the pastoral letter was he did 
not mention Mr. Kerry or Mr. Bush. He did not mention Democrat or 
Republican, liberal or conservative, but what he did was mention the 
word ``pro-life.''
  And I want my friends to know in the House that in the early 1990s 
that the Internal Revenue Service expanded, through an administrative 
process, the definition of what the Johnson amendment said. So in this 
documentation I am holding up tonight, Mr. Speaker, is a section called 
``code words.'' Well, this begins to sound like what I can imagine in 
the late 1930s in Germany, code words.

                              {time}  2130

  Code words are like prochoice, prolife, liberal, conservative, 
Democrat and Republican. So what the bishop did in his pastoral letter 
was he mentioned the word ``prolife'' and because of that, Barry Lynn 
filed a complaint against him to challenge the tax status of the 
diocese in Colorado Springs. This is just one small example of many 
things that are happening.
  In Kansas, I spoke to a minister today and he knows that there is a 
group in Kansas that is watching what he is saying in his church. Well, 
let me

[[Page 16920]]

say to my friends in the House, whether you be Democrat or Republican, 
this can happen to your church as well. What is happening in this 
country, there is an element that is trying to monitor the speech and 
the sermons in the churches and the synagogues and the mosques of this 
great Nation today.
  Let me read very briefly and then I will close, Mr. Speaker. The Main 
Stream Coalition headed by Caroline McKnight in Kansas is sending 
letters to more than 400 churches in the area reminding them of the IRS 
rule that we are trying to change to return to freedom of speech that 
we had in this country prior to 1954, which forbids tax exempt groups, 
including religious organizations, from participating in political 
campaigns for or against a candidate.
  Coalition volunteers will also visit churches and report any major 
violation to the IRS. This reminds me of what I thought might have 
happened in the late 1930s in Germany when the Jewish people went to 
their synagogue, where they had somebody watching who went in.
  Mr. Speaker, this Congress, we are here to protect the first 
amendment rights of all the American people. That includes our 
preachers, our priests and our rabbis and the clerics in this country. 
I hope if we are going to honor those men and women who have given 
their lives for this country, who have died for freedom since the 
beginning of America through today and the days following today, then 
we must do our job to make sure that there is freedom of speech in our 
churches and synagogues and mosques in this country.
  I close tonight, Mr. Speaker, by asking the good Lord to please bless 
our men and women in our uniform and their families. I close by asking 
the good Lord to bless America.

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