What's that thing where churches would have to preach both viewpoints?

Question

Today my friend told me something really crazy. I'm trying to figure out if he TOTALLY made it up, or it at least has some truth to it.

He said democrats want to pass some thing that would make it so churches would have to preach both sides of an issue? Like if they preached about how evolution isn't true, then they would also have to talk about how it could be true?????



What is this called and who wants to pass it?! If it's even truthful at all...

Thanks guys- now I know for sure my friend was just listening to stuff his dad made up! He's ignorant like that.

But just now he told me he's talking about the "fairness doctrine". Can any of you please explain that??

thanks

Answer 1

Two different things are involved here and I can see how someone could get it confused.

The first (involving the churches) is federal tax law. To qualify as charities under the tax law, the churches are forbidden from endorsing candidates for office (the same is true for other charities). They can take stands on issues generally (e.g. abortion is wrong, evolution is wrong, etc.), but they can't say vote for Senator Schmoe. This line is a very fine line and some Democrats think some churches may have crossed it in the last election (with good reason as Karl Rove was working with evangelicals to get their churches to come right up to the line -- undoubtedly some then went the next step over the line).

The second (the fairness doctrine) involves the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC licenses radio stations and broadcast television stations. By limiting the number of stations and the power at which they broadcast(and assigning each one its own frequency), the FCC is able to protect stations from other stations unintentionally interfering with their broadcasts. In exchange for this relatively cheap monopoly over a frequency, the FCC imposes certain rules on the stations. In the past, one of these rules was the Fairness Doctrine. This doctrine basically said that if you gave free airtime to one side of an issue, you had to give it to other side. The abolition of this rule is, in part, what lead to the boom in a more openly political talk radio. Some folks want to reinstate this rule to assure that everyone has an equal opportunity to be heard. The opponents of the fairness doctrine claim that the response of the stations to the fairness doctrine previously was not neutrality between viewpoints, but rather the exclusion of all viewpoints. Given that most talk radio has been dominated by conservative hosts, some but not all liberals have been pushing to reinstate this rule. However, for most Democratic members of Congress (including the presidential candidates), the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine is a rather low priority.

Answer 2

It's nonsense. I think your friend may have absorbed something by osmosis and got it all wrong. The real story is that churches cannot, as a church, endorse or oppose specific candidates.

Answer 3

LOL - you are a victim of Right-winger propaganda...

Don't believe a word of it... your friend is not really a friend at all.

*but you might want to look at Evolution from a viewpoint other than your churches...

Answer 4

dont believe your friend this time.churches still maintain their stand on evolution.with politics its 'lets say what they want to hear...today'.democrat or republican should not be what makes you believe in creation or evolution.GREAT QUESTION!!!!

Answer 5

i wonder if neocons even know how to tell truth if they wanted to