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IRS says churches should be allowed to make political endorsements

The IRS said in a new court filing that clergy and houses of worship should be allowed to make political endorsements, a potential move away from a 71-year-old tax policy that curtailed the fusing of religion and politics.

Banning tax-exempt nonprofits — including congregations — from participating in political campaigns violates the First Amendment’s protection of the right to the free exercise of religion and freedom of speech, IRS Commissioner Billy Long said in a court filing Monday in a Texas federal court case.

Nonprofits should be allowed to make political endorsements and not lose their tax exemptions, the IRS said in the court filing. Religious congregations, the filing said, are like families, and their internal communications should not be deemed “participation” in a campaign.

“When a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith in connection with religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither ‘participate[s]’ nor ‘intervene[s]’ in a ‘political campaign,’” according to the filing.

“First Amendment rights don’t end when a pastor, church member or even a political candidate steps on the platform of a church,”.

Others said changing the policy would further pollute U. S. politics.

“Permitting synagogues and other houses of worship to endorse or oppose candidates undercuts the integrity and unity of these religious institutions, turning them into an extension of political candidates or parties,”

“This decision fails to recognize the realities of modern spiritual life and could expose clergy, including rabbis and cantors, to unjust scrutiny as they fulfill their sacred duty to teach, guide, and inspire,” the statement said.

Just LOOK 👀 👀 👀 AT THIS!!

WASHINGTON—Telling reporters that the move would do much to combat low U. S. fertility rates, President Donald Trump issued an executive order Tuesday reversing vasectomies nationwide.

“We’re requiring all men to head to their doctors and have them undo these terrible, terrible procedures,” the president said in an address from the Oval Office in which he clarified that men over the age of 18 would be given 60 days to have their reproductive ducts reconnected or face imprisonment.

“Go to your urologist, get them to make a small cut—just a little cut on the scrotum—and put all that stuff back together. There will be some pain, but we want our men blowing full, beautiful loads to make the country’s future bright. America’s vas deferens will be the envy of the world.”

Trump added that this executive action would overturn the “awful Biden orders” that forced all men to get vasectomies in the first place.