A San Diego megachurch pastor told his congregation Sunday that he plans to vote for Mitt Romney for president, but he stopped short of endorsing the Republican candidate.
"My endorsement will be Jesus," said Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Church, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. "I'll tell you whom I'm going to vote for, but I don't think that makes it an endorsement. I'm going to vote for Mitt Romney, but I'm not telling you to."Garlow was among 1,477 pastors who signed up to preach on politics, specifically to present biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates, on Pulpit Freedom Sunday. Some have chosen to endorse or oppose candidates from the pulpit. The pastors were challenging IRS regulations that ban tax-exempt religious organizations from participating in any political campaign.
"It's not a case ... that we're wanting to lose our tax exemption," Garlow told CNN Sunday. "We're wanting to reclaim which is ours constitutionally based on the First Amendment – freedom of speech and freedom of religion – which American pastors enjoyed for 166 years of American history until Lyndon Baines Johnson got it passed, the Johnson Amendment, with only a voice vote."
"It's never been taken to court in 58 years."
Pastors and Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, who organized Pulpit Freedom Sunday, are in fact hoping to provoke the IRS and take the amendment to court so that it can be declared unconstitutional.
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