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The evangelical Christian leader who runs Newt Gingrich‘s Christian non-profit says that America’s Christians are experiencing unprecedented levels of persecution. Pastor Jim Garlow of La Mesa, California’s Skyline Church also warned that the IRS may remove the tax-exempt status from many Christian churches, which would force them to close.
“If you are an Evangelical Christian, it’s a full-blown persecution like we have not seen in America,” Garlow said today on “Wallbuilders Live,” a Texas-based media founded by faux-historian David Barton. “We now are beginning to wear a badge of honor that we do not want to wear and that kind of persecution that we find in the rest of the world, we’re now experiencing it here and it has enormous implications for the future.”
Garlow then claimed that it is possible that in the future, “the government leans on churches so severely, so strongly, not only ripping away their tax exemption which, I assume, many churches could not survive that and the loss of buildings when you don’t hire practicing homosexual pastors or you don’t perform homosexual weddings and the church is forced officially underground. That could be where we head.”
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Garlow is a strong advocate of “pulpit freedom,” the movement that believes religious organizations should not have to abide by IRS rules that prohibit political activity in order to retain their tax exempt status. Americans subsidize non-tax-paying religious institutions to the tune of at least $71 billion annually.
In 2010, former Speaker of the House and GOP presidential candidate tapped Garlow to head his Renewing American Leadership (ReAL) Christian non-profit. ReAL claims to be “a not-for-profit, non-partisan 501c3 organization. The mission of ReAL is to preserve America’s Judeo-Christian heritage by defending and promoting the three pillars of American civilization: freedom, faith and free-enterprise.”
The following year, ABC News reported that Renewing American Leadership, a “non-profit charity founded by Newt Gingrich to promote freedom, faith and free enterprise also served as another avenue to promote Gingrich’s political views, and came dangerously close, some experts say, to crossing a bright line that is supposed to separate tax-exempt charitable work from both the political process and such profit-making enterprises as books and DVDs.”
One of Gingrich’s for-profit ventures reportedly earned $220,000, funneled from Renewing American Leadership (ReAL).
Audio and hat tip: Right Wing Watch
Image via Jim Garlow’s Facebook page
Previously:
On Sunday 1000 Anti-Gay Pastors Think They’ll Be Breaking The Law In The Name Of God And Freedom
Anarchy? Hundreds Of Christian Groups Make Strong Pledge If Supreme Court Supports Gay Marriage
Gingrich: Gay Marriage Is “Pagan Behavior†And A “Fundamental Violationâ€