The South Dakota gubernatorial race has brought a lot of public discussion about “church and state” and the Constitutional freedom as well as the moral responsibility of pastors to speak out on political issues and endorse or warn against candidates from the pulpit. Despite the fact that liberals pushing an immoral agenda would rather Christians just shut up about this, it’s great that this discussion is going on, because America’s pastors have been muzzled for too long.

How long have they been muzzled?  Since the Constitution was ratified?  Since the Declaration of Independence?  Try 1954, when a change was inserted to the tax code dealing with all nonprofit organizations.

As James D. Davidson from Purdue University points out in his 1998 article “Why Churches Cannot Endorse or Oppose Political Candidates,” the prohibition on political endorsements or condemnations from the pulpit has nothing to do with the Constitution, the First Amendment, or even Jeffersonian principles of “separation of church and state.”

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