With the help of ADF, many pastors continue to pursue the freedom of speech the government has denied them.

The Free Speech Fairness Act was introduced in Congress to correct the problem that began in 1954 with passage of the so-called Johnson Amendment, which prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from endorsing or opposing political candidates at the expense of losing their tax-exempt status.

Alliance Defending Freedomhas been trying to overturn that for nearly ten years. ADF attorney Erik Stanley tells OneNewsNow it began when 33 pastors preached Pulpit Freedom Sunday sermons in 2008.

"Those sermons talked about the candidates that were running for office at the time in light of Scripture," he explains. "They made recommendations about those candidates to the congregation. They recorded their sermons and sent them to the IRS. Now, since that time, over 4,000 unique pastors have participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday."

The idea was to provoke the IRS into taking action and pursuing the case in federal court so that the Johnson Amendment would ultimately be overturned. But none of the pastors has been investigated or punished.

"The problem is the Johnson Amendment is still on the books," Stanley says. "The IRS still believes that it has the ability to regulate the pastor's sermon from the pulpit, and the pastors of America are kind of left in a legal limbo. This is where the Free Speech Fairness Act comes in."

If passed and signed into law, the measure would restore freedom of speech that everyone else enjoys, a freedom backed by the U.S. Constitution.

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Free speech for pastors -- here's hoping - OneNewsNow