Fact-checking

On Friday I posted a response to the USA Today letters about gay rights and the Christian church. Those articles were part of a larger series that the paper has been doing about religion (by which they apparently mean Judeo-Christianity, no other faiths have thus far been discussed), and which I anticipate will continue to provide interesting blog-fodder (look for updates and responses on Mondays and Fridays).

Today's piece, entitled "The founders got it right" is all about how the evil government is trying to trample our freedom of religion. The money quote?

Now, the secularist storm troops of the American Civil Liberties Union and its like drive religion from the public square with the mandate of the Everson ruling in hand. Religious symbols are removed from cemeteries, student prayer groups are driven from public facilities, and religious leaders are threatened if they dare speak about political issues from their pulpits.

Let's fact-check this little soundbyte, because it's one that gets repeated ad infinitum by radio personalities and conservative think tanks when they bemoan the de-Christifying of America. "Secularist storm troopers"? Classy. Name calling is always a good way to start a constructive argument. But let's talk about his substantive points, starting with those religious symbols removed from cemeteries. Most likely he's referring here to an internet rumor that the ACLU was attempting to remove cross-shaped gravestones from Arlington. This chain-letter myth gets neatly deconstructed and disproven in an article (including caselaw on this point) from Snopes. Religious symbols on gravestones and monuments are alive and well in our government cemeteries. It's also irresponsible of the author not to check his sources to be sure he's not discussing urban legends as support for his point.

Well, even if he got the cemeteries wrong, surely student prayer groups are no longer allowed in schools? Actually, not so. See You At The Pole is a nationwide group that sponsors prayers around school flagpoles, and student-led school religious groups have over and over been ruled Constitutional. So hmmm. Apparently student prayer groups are alive and well in public facilities.

So what about the religious leaders 'threatened' if they 'dare' talk politics to their flocks? Well, this one's partly true. The IRS allows churches non-profit status, but only so long as they don't endorse particular candidates in an election. The rule of thumb is that churches are allowed to endorse issues but not people. So a pastor is completely free to do a sermon about the evils of abortion, or how stem cell research is murder. Those are political topics. And if the church doesn't care about its non-profit status, the pastor even endorse particular candidates. I personally don't think that this is an unreasonable stance to take (it's always seemed tacky to me for a church to endorse a candidate qua candidate rather than endorse a specific stance on issues). It allows the churches room to preach their message as much as they like, and it avoids the complex campaign-finance issues that could arise from pastors endorsing specific candidates. To recap this one: pastors aren't forbidden to talk about politics at all. They're forbidden to endorse a specific candidate.

In short, everything in that little soundbyte was either a direct lie, or a gross distortion of the truth. It's people like this, giving messages like this in the name of 'protecting Christianity' that give all Christians a bad name. After all, wasn't one of the commandments "Thou Shall Not Lie"?