Rev. Steve Youngblood of City Church in Burlington, Iowa had flyers displayed in the back of his church that urged voters to to remove Justice David Wiggins, an Iowa judge who had voted to legalize same-sex marriage.
The Associated Press reports that on September 30th, a woman attending the church objected to the flyers on the grounds that it was illegal for tax-exempt organizations to promote political candidates or causes.
The following week in his October 7th sermon, the pastor recalled the encounter saying he'd "like to slap her" and that her husband should rise up and "correct her."
Pastor Youngblood castigated the woman's stance on gay marriage saying: “Don’t call yourself a Christian and do that. We need to draw a line in the sand. We need to begin to say that at City Church this is how we’re going to be.”
"What makes me madder is that this person's husband won't correct them," Raw Story reported the Pastor saying. "I don't like rebellious women. I don't like rebellious men, either. They're even worse."
While a 1954 federal law prohibits tax-exempt organizations from promoting political candidates, there is a new movement among some churches to strike that law down on the grounds of freedom of religion. And as the Des Moines Register reports Youngblood remains defiant:
"If you heard the sermon, I held it (the flyer) up and said here it is, go get it,” Youngblood said. “I’m not going to be bullied. I’m not going to be intimidated. I’m not intentionally breaking the law.”
However, according to the Des Moines Register, a local chapter of the Interfaith Alliance does have concerns as Executive Director Connie Ryan Terrell explained:
“He read from that pamphlet during the sermon and encouraged people to pick it up after church and in my opinion that is a direct violation of the law, which prohibits houses of worship and nonprofits from endorsing candidates.”
Original Article
Source: huffington post
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