[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17916]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       RESTORING FREEDOM OF SPEECH TO AMERICA'S HOUSES OF WORSHIP

  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 back on the floor 
today, as I was prior to the August break, to talk about freedom of 
speech in our churches and synagogues and mosques of this country.
  Many people do not realize that from the beginning of this great 
Nation, until 1954, there was never any restriction of what a minister 
or a priest or a rabbi might say regarding policy issues, political 
issues, and actually making reference to the teachings in the Bible and 
the Torah. But what has happened over the last few years is that there 
is an element in this country, usually it is the Americans for 
Separation of Church and State, which is a metaphor, that seem to want 
to monitor what is being said in our churches and synagogues. This year 
it seems to be worse than ever before.
  I want to start my brief remarks about Bishop Smith, a Catholic 
bishop in New Jersey. On March 27 at St. James Church, Bishop Smith 
asked why, in our presumably democratic country, Catholic churches fear 
that the Internal Revenue Service will punish them if they speak out on 
a politician's positions on issues. I further quote Bishop Smith: ``The 
first amendment protects the free exercise of religion. Separation of 
church and state does not mean that the church and its members should 
not voice or advocate for their positions.''
  I say that, Mr. Speaker, because there is a real problem in this 
country.
  About 2 months ago, Bishop Sheridan, the Catholic bishop of Colorado 
Springs, sent a pastoral letter to the 120,000 Catholics in his 
diocese, and it was a pastoral letter. He mentioned in the letter that 
the Catholic Church stands for protecting the unborn, opposed to 
euthanasia, opposed to stem cell research, and believes that marriage 
should be between one man and one woman. In this pastoral letter he 
said nothing about Mr. Kerry or Mr. Bush, but because he did use the 
word prolife, Mr. Lynn, Barry Lynn, director of the Americans For 
Separation of Church and State, wrote a letter and complained to the 
Internal Revenue Service that the bishop and the church should lose its 
tax-free status.
  Well, let me explain very quickly. I have done 4 years of research on 
this issue, and this is my fourth year of putting a bill in to return 
the freedom of speech to our churches and synagogues. What I found out 
was that in 1934 when the Congress decided that the churches could 
qualify for the 501(c)(3) status, they had no restriction of speech, 
absolutely none, zero. But what happened is in 1954, Lyndon Baines 
Johnson had the H.L. Hunt family opposed to his reelection to the 
Senate, and the H.L. Hunt family had 2 501(c)3s; not churches, but 
think tanks. And Senator Johnson put in an amendment on a revenue bill 
going through the Senate in 1954 that was never debated, no hearings, 
that basically had unintended consequence for our churches and 
synagogues. I share that just to give a little bit of the history.
  Let me give two more examples before I close. In Kansas, the American 
Center for Separation of Church and State has a subgroup called the 
Main Street Coalition based in Johnson County, Kansas. It is sending 
recruits into area churches to see if IRS guidelines, which come from 
the Johnson amendment, are being followed. The group, which bills 
itself as a committee for the separation of church and state, is 
concerned that local clergymen might be violating their tax-exempt 
status by endorsing candidates for elected office.
  What prompted the campaign was a public meeting where an evangelical 
minister spoke out against homosexual marriage. They were Protestant 
churches, by the way. Catholic League president William Donohue is wary 
of the group's tactics and released the following statement. ``To 
conduct a covert operation in houses of worship for the purpose of 
monitoring homilies or sermons is not the kind of operation conducted 
by friends of the first amendment.'' I am not reading the complete 
statement, but part of the statement.
  Let me go further with one more example, and then I will conclude my 
remarks.
  In the Baptist Church in Arkansas, Pastor Ronnie Floyd did not have a 
sermon, but actually at the end of church had a little flyer that he 
handed out, and there was a picture of George Bush and John Kerry, and 
he just mentioned not who to vote for, but just two issues, one being 
the marriage between man and woman, the other about partial-birth 
abortion, and because the photograph was a little bit larger of 
President Bush, he filed a complaint with the IRS.
  Mr. Speaker, I see my time is about up, and I want to close this way. 
This Nation's greatness is due to the fact that we have men and women 
overseas now fighting and dying for freedom for the American people. If 
this country is going to remain morally strong, then we must, we must 
return the first amendment right to our houses of worship, both 
Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and also Jewish.

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