Walter B. Jones: “I have been on the floor for the last 3 or 4 years from time to time to talk about the need, the importance of having…”

“I have been on the floor for the last 3 or 4 years from time to time to talk about the need, the importance of having our spiritual leaders in America to have freedom of speech, to speak on a Sunday or Saturday and talk about the moral and political issues of the day. This year has probably been one of the worst I have seen as far as the attack on people of faith in this great Nation. Let me read from the St. Petersburg Times, an article from today. It says, ``As the political influence of churches grows, opponents are wielding the Tax Code as a weapon against them.'' State Representative Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat who is African American, she says, ``It could have a chilling effect. I see it as a way to try to intimidate people, but I think it's not going to work.'' I would say to Representative Joyner she is exactly right. That is why I hope that she and many other people, both here in the Congress as well as other State representatives, will get behind this effort to return the freedom of speech to our churches and synagogues. A lot of people do not know the history, but prior to 1954 any speech or sermon by a minister, priest or rabbi in this great Nation was protected by the first amendment rights. In 1954 Lyndon Baines Johnson's amendment on a revenue bill going through the Senate basically stifled our churches because our churches are 501(c)(3)s.”