A liberal pastor in Wisconsin is without a church after trying to endorse progressive Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) from the pulpit, according to the New York Times.
Rev. Jonathan Barker,41, planned to deliver his sermon at the Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha, Wis. last Sunday endorsing the Democrat for president in 2028. Ocasio-Cortez has not officially announce she is running for president.
For seven decades, federal law banned churches from making political endorsements. Last month the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) created an exception saying the law doesn’t apply to pastors speaking to their congregation.
However, Rev. Barker’s church objected to the sermon because officials believe it could jeopardize the tax exempt status of the denomination’s other churches.
“I said, ‘Jon, we just agreed as a group that this is not a good idea,’” Bishop Paul D. Erickson, who oversees churches in southeast Wisconsin told the Times. “You are putting them at risk without their knowledge or consent,” he recalled saying.
Rev. Barker resigned from the church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America denomination last Thursday.
He made the endorsement and delivered his pro-AOC sermon, but to nine people in a borrowed event space.
“I am very proud, as a pastor, to endorse A.O.C. to be the love-your-neighbor presidential candidate,” he said in the sermon, adding that Ocasio-Cortez’s policies supporting universal health care, a higher minimum wage and the fight against climate change embodied Christian values, the Times reports.
Rev. Barker told the outlet that he felt like Christians on the left are about to lose a political battle after the new I.R.S rule because they are refusing to play. He pointed to the Family Research Council, an advocacy group that promotes conservative values, trying to mobilize 18,000 pastors for next year’s midterm elections.
“There’s 18,000 that’s ready to go,” he said. “And there’s none of us ready to go.”
