Many of those who seek to drive expressions of faith from the public square cite Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury, Connecticut, Baptist Association in which he referenced the First Amendment’s “wall of separation between Church & State.” Faith, they claim, should contain itself within the four walls of the church and stay separated from the rest of society. The First Amendment, however, sought the opposite, to keep government from intruding upon the church. And never more than now has such protection been needed. From the IRS to states’ attorneys general, real life examples of government intrusion into the church are not lacking.

According to IRS interpretation, the Johnson Amendment prohibits speech by pastors and churches that is supportive or opposed to certain candidates for public office. Thus, the IRS is monitoring sermons for this objectionable content. The amendment is used as a litmus test to determine which pastor speech is or is not acceptable to the government in order to receive tax-exempt status. Sermon content is monitored under the law, and certain sermons are flagged and the pastor and church are punished with the removal of tax-exempt status as the price for exercising his First Freedom. This is an unacceptable intrusion into church autonomy and First Amendment rights. Churches and pastors should not have to deal with this but should be free to speak according to the scriptures without government interference or coercion, which the Johnson Amendment does.

Apparently, the state of Georgia is taking its cues from the IRS in its treatment of Dr. Eric Walsh. The state had hired him to head up the state’s public health system but found out he was a lay pastor and started reviewing his sermons and obviously found content it didn’t like, and fired him. Now the state is seeking to obtain his sermons and related materials again in order to monitor and sift through them again as part of this lawsuit. Just like the IRS monitors churches and terminates their tax-exempt status based on certain content, the state of Georgia monitored Dr. Walsh’s sermons and terminated his job based on certain content of his sermons. This is an unacceptable intrusion into a pastor’s autonomy that Dr. Walsh should not have to deal with; rather, he should be free speak, and that includes the freedom to preach. His freedom has been taken away by the state of Georgia, and it should be restored.

In both cases, the government has seized authority over churches and pastors which it simply does not have. Government does not have authority over the things of God but only over the things of men. Pastor Dave Welch from Houston (who was one of the “Houston Five” pastors who were subpoenaed by the city in another case two years ago) made this point well in the press conference held [Wednesday] for Dr. Walsh. He noted how this case is like that of the “Houston Five” because in both cases it’s important to stand up to government authorities who would assume authority over churches and sermons. No pastor is afraid of their sermons being public — they invite everyone into their churches every Sunday to hear what they have to preach. Rather, the issue is that a really bad precedent will be set if we sit back and allow the government to just assume it can demand anything from pastors and churches and expect them to turn it over.

As of November 1st, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal will be appointing a new Attorney General for the state of Georgia. He can make sure he appoints someone who will show respect for religious liberty and remedy the wrong that has been done to Dr. Walsh here. Governor Deal’s administration was absolutely wrong to fire Dr. Walsh in the first place for the content of his religious beliefs, and the governor’s appointment for Attorney General should fix this now — by stopping its intrusion into his religious affairs and by concluding this lawsuit. If you haven’t yet joined the over 23,000 Americans who have signed FRC’s petition urging Governor Deal to do just that, sign it now here.

Originally published here.

Abortion’s Dominion

The state of Virginia calls itself a “commonwealth,” a political body organized to protect and advance the common good of its citizens. But this week the Old Dominion’s Board of health rescinded health and safety regulations put forth in the aftermath of the 2011 Kermit Gosnell “house of horrors” case, proving that in Governor Terry McAuliffe’s Virginia, the only “good” worth seeking is the profit of his abortion lobby backers.

Kermit Gosnell was a national turning point in regulating the abortion industry because a grand jury found that this unregulated abortionist “killed babies and endangered women”:

What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy — and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors. The medical practice by which he carried out this business was a filthy fraud in which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their wombs and bowels — and, on at least two occasions, caused their deaths.

States around the country began revisiting and updating their regulation of abortion providers, and many abortionists were investigated (including Steven Brigham’s abortion practices in Virginia) and even shut down. In Virginia, the Board of Health was tasked with updating health and safety standards. But Planned Parenthood and its allies pushed back forcefully, helping to elect a pro-abortion Democratic governor.

Now, it’s pay-back time, according to our friends at the Family Foundation:

On Monday, the $1 billion abortion industry got what it paid for; politically motivated protection from Terry McAuliffe. Despite overwhelming evidence uncovered by inspections of abortion centers, including bloody, unsterilized medical equipment, doctors and nurses not washing hands or re-gloving between patients, untrained and unaccountable staffing, and hundreds of other deficiencies, the Board of Health, populated by those who passed the Governor’s pro-abortion litmus test, did as they were ordered and watered down health and safety standards.

Read the rest here. From CDC standards for preventing infections to standards of medical care imposed on dental surgeons, the board repealed countless common-sense health and safety standards.

Perhaps most egregiously, the Board of Health overstepped its own mandate. It even granted the Commissioner of Health the power to overlook any (remaining) medical standards at will. An unaccountable government official will now have the power to turn a blind eye on the gruesome abortion industry.

Stay tuned — it certainly appears the McAuliffe administration is ripe for a legal challenge for its blatant disregard of the law.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.