{"id":830,"date":"2008-10-03T15:26:14","date_gmt":"2008-10-03T19:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=830"},"modified":"2013-05-10T15:27:45","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T19:27:45","slug":"ron-johnson-jr-speaking-freely-from-the-pulpit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2008\/10\/03\/ron-johnson-jr-speaking-freely-from-the-pulpit\/830\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Johnson Jr.:  Speaking Freely from the Pulpit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On September 28, more than 30 pastors around the country defied the Internal Revenue Service rule that clergy may not engage in partisan politicking from their pulpits. The project, called &#8220;Pulpit Freedom Sunday,&#8221; was organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group that believes pastors have a constitutional right to preach about politics. The Fund will defend the local pastors against any repercussions from their sermons. One of the participating ministers was Rev. Ron Johnson Jr. of Living Stones Church in Crown Point, Indiana. Listen to an excerpt from his sermon and his explanation of why he was part of this project. Do you think clergy should be allowed to engage in politicking from their pulpits? Where are the lines? Leave a comment below. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On September 28, more than 30 pastors around the country defied the Internal Revenue Service rule that clergy may not engage in partisan politicking from their pulpits. The project, called &#8220;Pulpit Freedom Sunday,&#8221; was organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2008\/10\/03\/ron-johnson-jr-speaking-freely-from-the-pulpit\/830\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":16331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2221,2222,2218,2223,2224,2220],"class_list":["post-830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-and-politics","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-irs","tag-pulpit-freedom-sunday","tag-ron-johnson-jr","tag-separation-of-church-and-state","topics-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ron Johnson Jr.: Speaking Freely from the Pulpit | October 3, 2008 | Religion &amp; 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