In a nutshell: under current law, Pastor Smith is welcome to personally endorse a political candidate, work for her election, or even run for office himself. What Pastor Smith cannot do under current law is to endorse a candidate on behalf of his tax-exempt house of worship, nor dedicate the resources of that organization to promoting said candidate. A proposed change to those rules plays right into the hands of some Conservatives who see this as a free speech issue – but as Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism explains, there’s a lot at stake were this restriction lifted – and the greatest loss would be to the tax-exempt organizations themselves.
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