Hello,

I'm quite involved in this area so I'll try to be brief and basic.

First, however, we must understand some basic legal issues. In our country the State's are separate and equal and compacted together granting express powers to a very limited jurisdiction for the Federal government.

The Federal Constitution grants no jurisdiction over religion (read that Christianity) to the Federal government, in addition the Bill of Rights was added as a negative prohibition against powers the Federal government never had. The First Amendment was added to primarily protect the Church in all of it's functions and duties, to be free from Federal regulation, engage in free exercise of religion pursuant to the Liberty of Conscience, be free to publish, meet and redress the government for grievances.

In 1949, however, the United States Supreme Court came down with their famous "separation of Church and State" case whereby the First Amendment was applied coercively against the State's through the 14th Amendment. So, "establishment clause" cases, as they are called, all read "The First Amendment by way of the 14th means this...", which is the opposite of what it means, and as you are fully aware they began hostilities to expressions of faith in public, whereby even prayers at a football game somehow become "the establishment of religion." The Bible and Prayer and other public expressions of faith have been attacked with tremendous hostility since that time.

During the passage of the 14th Amendment and subsequently to it's passages, over the course of about a decade, several members in Congress led by a Congressman Blaine attempted to get the Amendment to read whereby the First Amendment was incorporated within it against the States. This was brought up 22 times and 22 times the whole Congress said no - that is not what we want the 14th Amendment to do to the First Amendment.

After this in 1954, LB Johnson, while Senator and promoting his liberal ideas of the "Great Society" moved for passage of the law that is now codified at 501 of the Internal Revenue Code, the regulation and tax exemption of religious organizations. Under the law not every religion has the right to be non-taxable and Johnson hated the fact that Churches would oppose the liberal ideals of the Great Society and this law was passed off as a great benefit disguising its true intention of quelling Christian social influence and isolating it within the Church walls in the name of equality and tolerance to all non-Christian religions. In this Churches have an option, that is totally voluntary, to change their legal status from a Church to a "religious organization." Religious organizations are regulated and are prohibited from many activities including influencing elections and legislation. The Church of the Satan needs, and has, a tax exempt status to exist and this would prohibit the State's from passing laws against Satanism in the name of "equal rights," under the 14th Amendment in how it is now illegally construed.

But it is important to understand that the legal basis in which the Federal government gains jurisdiction over the Church, which it is prohibited from having, is through the "separation of Church and State" concept, whereby the Church via contract waives it's rights and converts rights protected at law to privileges.

Both Federal law and State law is heirarchal, so I'll give you an example from my State, Indiana, this is our heirarchy of law and yours will be very similar:

IC 1-1-2-1
Hierarchy of law
Sec. 1. The law governing this state is declared to be:
First. The Constitution of the United States and of this state.
Second. All statutes of the general assembly of the state in force, and not inconsistent with such constitutions.
Third. All statutes of the United States in force, and relating to subjects over which congress has power to legislate for the states, and not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States.
Fourth. The common law of England, and statutes of the British Parliament made in aid thereof prior to the fourth year of the reign of James the First (except the second section of the sixth chapter of forty-third Elizabeth, the eighth chapter of thirteenth Elizabeth, and the ninth chapter of thirty-seventh Henry the Eighth,) and which are of a general nature, not local to that kingdom, and not inconsistent with the first, second and third specifications of this section.


Religion (read that Christianity) is not regulated by either Federal or State Constitutions, it is expressly prohibited to do so. However, statutes exist where you can become regulated, if you so desire, because the Constitution protects your right to contract. In other words, freedom is a responsibility that flows from English Common Law whereby everyone, including the Church, has a beneficium under God which imposes duties and obligations, to both man and God, which they are required to perform. This is where the idea of rights come from. So, you have the freedom to waive your rights, this is why Miranda warnings say: "You have the right to remain silent, if you should give up this right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."

To become licensed by the Federal government and seek its regulation, the Church is given the promise it will not attack it's economic dominions, provided it doesn't, in essence, fulfill the Great Commission and directly "teach the nations to obey whatsoever God commands" (Matthew 28:18). They can indirectly do so by teaching their members God's laws, but cannot directly do so by saying "Government, Thus Saith the Lord." You Church, this law says, need to limit Christ's dominion over the spiritual (which means non-material world), your soul - you can sing, pray and preach; and we the Civil Government will have dominion over the material world. In essence, it regulates a neo-platonic nature/grace dialetic unto the Church and is Erastianism with the Federal government as visible head of the Church. Very medieval.

This is what happens legally to a Church when they file the form to waive their right of being non-taxable, and provide detailed statements of faith and practice, to which the IRS examines to see if they conform to the law. In other words, you have to prove to the government that your religious beliefs won't lead or require you to not recognize the Federal government's sovereignty. This is signed under penalty of perjury and if accepted, it binds the Church under law and under the penalty of perjury to the federal regulation of the Church. This contract is open ended, the Federal government can amend it at any time, but the Church cannot.

In order for the Federal government to exercise jurisdiction over which it doesn't have and is expressly forbidden to have in the First Amendment the Church has to waive it's rights, then the Federal government has to extinguish the sovereignty of the State in which that organization exists. Legally this means that the First Amendment by way of the 14th is applied against the State on behalf of that Church and it becomes a Federalized organization. Legally, then, strike any mention of God in your State Constitution out as well as the preamble of the Treaty of Paris, and the public confession of faith of your State is now imputed unto the Church as an explicitly godless and humanistic institution.

In the above example of hierarchy of law, then, the Common Law through which the Church receives the Scriptures in it's civil dominions is extinguished (Item 4 above) and it becomes subject to the heirarchy of the Federal government instead of being independent from it. This means that your Presbyterian Church, so licensed, is legally Anglican and is a "State Church" just like the Church of England. This is because both the English common law and the separate and equal station of the State's is cut off and then the English common law inures in the Federal hierarchy over religion, which was prior cut off via the First Amendment.

It is not only unfortunate as your friend mentioned it is explicitly unBiblical and antiChristian. It is a very serious thing for a Church to pre-emptively take it's congregation before the Law in violation of 1 Corinthians 6 and adjudicate the legal rights of every member at law.

For example, as I mentioned the Federal government can amend this contract at any time, in the US Patriot Act every 501 C organization now exists under the potential threat of being declared a "terrorist organization." Of course, this is an extreme example, but the law exists so it is a potentiality. If that happens every member of that Church can be arrested and held without habeaus corpus, have all of their property confiscated (individuals as well) and held without bail indefinately - without due process, a trial or anything. You have no rights or due process, you've waived all of those things in the contract and your voluntary membership.

Depending upon how a particular Church is organized the sacraments themselves are under Jurisdiction of the Federal government as well. This is especially true in the PCA because it has one contract with the government that each member Church becomes a part of and the Church constitution is conformed to require that every baptized member "be a member of the corporation." You'll find then, that if you don't want to have your rights adjudicated away in order to enjoy the free exercise of your religion, that the PCA won't baptize you because Church membership and waiving your rights are tied together. While it is an indirect link, it very effectively places the sacraments under the civil magistrate.

So, that is it in a nutshell. For all of this you get to enjoy the privilege of tax exemption instead of the right of being non-taxable. And, any Free Church has the liberty to engage in political activity if it wishes without the Church or members becoming taxable. You'll find that the Federal government generally doesn't violate the rights of people, it gets you to waive them, and most people freely do.

__________________
Thomas Weddle
Member, Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church
Evansville, Indiana