Encouraging clergy to be involved in the issues of the day, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli laid out basic ground rules for political involvement from the pulpit this morning.
According to prepared remarks provided by Cuccinelli’s office, the attorney general encouraged the ministers to be involved, but said there are some limitations placed on their churches’ activities by the Internal Revenue Service.
For instance, Cuccinelli (R) said pastors can personally endorse candidates, but not on behalf of their churches. They can distribute voter’s guides that outline positions of candidates on issues but those guides cannot specify whether individual candidates’ views are consistent with church teachings. They can rent their mailing lists to candidates, at market value, and they can allow candidates to use their facilities, provided they are charged fees if other civic groups are as well.
Candidates can be invited to address congregations, as long as rivals in contested races are given equal opportunities to speak, he said.
Hopefully he added a bit more nuance in his actual remarks than this report indicates. When an endorsement is personal, for example, and not given "on behalf of churches," is a matter largely determined by context. Also left out of this discussion is a question of propriety. Do we really want our church leaders selling our mailing list to candidates? Ministers have an obligation to think through these issues thoroughly. There may be some things the law allows but a responsible church leader would be wise to avoid.
