To the Editor:

Encouraging ministers to endorse or oppose candidates from the pulpit is a dangerous idea which seriously threatens religious liberty ("Politics From Pulpit Will Deliver Challenge to IRS," Sept. 24). 

Politicizing churches coerces congregants and invites politicians and churches to start an unseemly bartering of government benefits for political support.  Not only does the Alliance Defense Fund's initiative encourage clergy to flagrantly disobey the tax law, it also encourages candidates to compete to see who is more pious.  What ever happened to the constitutional requirement that there be no religious test for public office?

Most Americans do not want their ministers telling them how to vote, any more than they want the government interfering with what goes on in their church.  The genius of the framers of our Constitution – which has allowed religion to flourish in America – was to keep church and state separate.  Jefferson and Madison had the right idea.