We’ve been blogging on a number of things here for the past year, and the tenor of things has obviously changed a lot since September of 2007. We started out this blog to point out the coming financial judgment on the United States, and indeed much of the western world. We were scoffed at for pointing out so many times that financial debt is stealing, and that the Bible firmly teaches against the believer running into debt to supply things for himself.

We also diligently pointed out the worldly and unholy teaching practices of Dave Ramsey and Crown Financial Ministries; even though these folks say that debt is sin, their teachings reflect a hushed “But it’s not like a real BIG sin or anything” tone, and they don’t expect anyone to not be in debt. The Ramsey and Crown apologists have attacked us numerous times, and yet Scripture has never been used by these people to refute anything that we’ve said on this blog. I’m also happy to say that “Crown Financial Plan” is the most common search term that sends people to this site (Now I laugh!). For the most part, we don’t listen to these programs any more because the hosts blaspheme too often, and we couldn’t stand it any more.

Since God is in the process of destroying the U.S. financial structure, as He promised to do in the Bible, our blogging work is mostly done in that area. We’ll still touch on it occasionally, but God is leading us to blog more in the areas of ethics, homeschooling and other topics at this time. Mrs. Mallory stirred up a hornet’s nest over the original “Real Christians Homeschool!” post, so I’ve decided to make it a regular series here on FF.  (I think the exclamation point in the title gives it that extra flair, so that will remain in place as well.)

Here’s a group of pastors that will be going to jail soon, and deservedly so:

“CHICAGO — Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules.

The effort by the Arizona-based legal consortium is designed to trigger an IRS investigation that ADF lawyers would then challenge in federal court. The ultimate goal is to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship.”

You can read the whole article over at the Washington Post.

Part of the agreement for a church to be tax-exempt is that they won’t make political endorsements. It’s the law of the land, and if their church is tax-exempt, they have made an agreement to abide by the law of the land. Your church is not entitled to be tax-exempt, it is a choice and an unnecessary one at that.

If you choose to incorporate, you are submitting to all the rules that that entails. That includes hindering the pastor’s ability to preach the whole counsel of God, and abiding by ANY OTHER RULES that your corporate master (in this case, the US Government), puts on you. If the government says you can’t endorse a candidate, otherwise you lose your tax exempt status, guess what? You’ve agreed to abide by that by choosing tax-exempt incorporation.

Here’s another quote from Art Fisher’s article: “IRS Publication 557 Sec. 508(c) provides that churches are not REQUIRED to apply for recognition of section 501(c)(3) status in order to be exempt from federal taxation or to receive tax-deductible contributions.”

Since these churches are incorporated as tax exempt “organizations”, the pastors have an obligation to abide by what their corporate masters tell them to. They could easily un-incorporate, which would show true obedience to God, and preach on whatever they want to. They’re supposed to be churches, NOT corporations.

Not only should these pastors be jailed for breaking the law (which they’ve agreed to abide by), they have ethically shown themselves to be liars (or ignorant of the laws they’ve submitted their flocks to out of greed), and their congregations should hold them to account for this. The lawyers involved know these laws inside and out, and know they will lose. But the Dobsonites obviously have deep pockets, so this political stunt in an election year will undoubtedly get a lot of attention in megachurches across the country.

Click here for a great article by Ingrid Schlueter with a bit of encouragement in the closing paragraphs at the end for home churches.   Here’s an excerpt:

“Outside of the corporate worship, I want a church that believes in evangelism and outreach. Doctrinal clubs that sit smugly complacent are actually mausoleums. Who wants to worship in a tomb? There is a world out there that needs the message of the Gospel. It is our responsibility to take it to them, and churches should facilitate and train members for this critical mission. Truly saved believers have a burning heart to share it with others. I want to be part of a church that has this burning heart. I want to be part of a church where the young people are not just going on mission trips because they get to have fun in cool places, but because they get to share with those who have never heard the truth that Jesus saves. Social work is fine, but the Gospel message of Jesus must be heard loud and clear in the midst of it.”