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Today Rick Warren, the pastor of the Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, is hosting a forum that will feature Barack Obama and John McCain. Warren has not publicly endorsed either candidate. The event will be available for viewing on major news outlets throughout the country.
http://saddlebackcivilforum.com/index.html#
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93632981&ft=1&f=1001

A related topic is Obama?s proposal to greatly expand the Bush administration?s public funding for faith-based initiatives.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/07/01/obama_backs_expanded_governmen.html

Where does the line between church and state really fall these days? What actions by a religious entity should be considered a nullification of their tax-exempt status? When a candidate running for public office addresses a congregation of any denomination, is that a political event? When a church provides sanctuary to illegal immigrants, does that defiance of the law (however compassionate the act) put the church at odds with the government?

I would like to hear a discussion of what the tax-exempt status really means and how political activism by tax-exempt organizations squares with their IRS status. Do we really want tax dollars funding the programs of faith-based organizations? How much funding are these organizations really receiving and how are these funds being used?

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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