On September 28th thirty-three pastors from all across the nation decided to take a stand against the Johnson Amendment of 1954. This amendment was only about four paragraphs and passed without any opposition or discussion. Lyndon Johnson was running for the senate and was receiving opposition from the Communist party. To stifle their voice, he introduced this amendment to cut off the IRS deduction for any non-profit organization speaking publicly about a political candidate. Since that time pastors have been afraid to mention anything about candidates or their voting records from the pulpit. That all changed when the Alliance Defense Fund decided to hold “Pulpit Freedom Sunday”.

Pulpit Freedom Sunday is a legal effort designed to secure the First Amendment rights of pastors in the pulpit. It is not trying to get politics into the pulpit but allows churches to decide for themselves whether or not they want their pastors to speak about electoral candidates. It is about getting the government out of the pulpit. Churches were free to preach about candidates from the day that the Constitution was ratified in 1788 until this amendment in 1954.

On Pulpit Freedom Sunday these thirity-three pastors stood in their pulpits and gave the voting records and stated beliefs on moral issues of both candidates. They filmed the sermon, made a DVD and sent it to the IRS and the ACLU. They are now asking for each Christian to contact their representatives asking them to repeal the Johnson Amendment. They are also asking for prayer.

I personally heard the testimony of one of these pastors but not much has been reported by the Mainstream Media.