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Sample Pastor's Letter to Congressmen Concerning H.R. 235 8/11/2003 Below is a sample pastor's letter to your congressman. Please also send a copy of your letter to:
Dear Congressman, < Find your Congressman here >
As a pastor, I fully support the "House of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act" (H.R. 235), to eliminate government intimidation of religious leaders like myself. When conscience obliges me to address moral issues that affect the public life of my community, I do not want to be restrained for fear of government agents who might interpret my actions as interference in political subjects and use them as a pretext for challenging my church's tax status. If a government agency has the power to punish a church -- even to destroy it -- simply because the church makes an otherwise lawful statement that the IRS deems "political," then that agency has too much power.
It is a fact that religious leaders have felt intimidated when their conscience calls them to address questions of public life. It is also a fact that within the religious community there has been a vigorous debate on how far a church may go in discussing such questions. That debate has not centered on the question of how far our religious principles allow us to go into such questions, but how far the tax laws allow us to go. Surely, no one intended to put the churches and religious leaders of the United States in such a position, but it has happened and it must be corrected. H.R. 235 provides that correction in a way that upholds free speech and religious liberty without sacrificing the legitimate interests of government.
This fear and intimidation must stop. My church wants it to stop, and we are calling on you to be accountable to protecting our rights. Please co-sponsor H.R. 235 today.
Sincerely,
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Concerned Women for America 1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: (202) 488-7000 Fax: (202) 488-0806 |
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