Local preacher doesn't now the 1st thing about the 1st Amendment...

...But in the “FAITH/ReligionViews,” section, our Valley Frontiersman nods to the 1st Amendment and gives Reverend Ron Hamman of the Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla free reign to spout some of his strange and insupportable views on a weekly basis. It seems “FAITH” (belief in something for which there is no proof) is the only place the views of the good pastor belong.

In earlier Frontiersman missives, Pastor Hamman has suggested that no person more liberal than he could conceivably respect the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. This may not shock those who call Hamman “Pastor,” but it would surprise a majority of Americans in this center-left nation.

Pastor Ron posits that the only true word of God is in the King James Bible. I don’t know from where Pastor Ron is credentialed in theology, but he must know that the Bible as we know it was translated from Hebrew and Aramaic to Greek-to-Latin-to-Old and Middle English, and cobbled together by committee with many subtle and not-so-subtle changes along the way. Why claim the King James as the only authentic “word,” when no serious biblical scholar thinks so?

So worked up about the evils of “sodomy” is Pastor Ron, that he recently suggested: “Will the Antichrist be a Homosexual?” He doesn’t come right out and say that he or she will be, but he leaves precious little room for doubt to any of his readership. Pastor Ron’s not doing a “God Hates Fags” a la the infamous Fred Phelps (also of an “independent” Baptist church), but he really ain’t that far from it.

Most recently, Pastor Ron assumes a competence in constitutional, as well as biblical scholarship, declaring that a government tax on a church is in violation of the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and that secular humanists, “Are evil and don’t want to be exposed.” On the second claim, Pastor Ron has me dead-to-rights. I admit that I am these things: husband, father and grandfather, schoolteacher, blood donor, community theater actor, recycler, secular humanist and apparently, evil-doer.

As to the Constitution, however, I fear Pastor Ron’s scholarship needs a little brush up. My research can find no constitutional restriction on Congress when it comes to church taxation, nor is there any such restriction on state or local governments. A little history: tax exemptions for churches and religious groups are a holdover from America’s European roots. They were customary in the early Republic, and now, even when protected by law, are not automatic, universal or total. This is no small thing. Churches may own more than 20% of all land in the U.S., and the average American family pays up to $1000 to fill the revenue gap caused by religious tax exemptions. In short, evil-doing secular humanists are subsidizing the churches of Pastor Ron, Pat Robertson, the pope, the Latter Day Saints, the Moonies and the Dalai Lama. Pastor Ron should maybe cut us some slack.

The instrument by which this these tax exemptions are made is the 501(c)3 “corporation.” Used by churches, charities and non-profits to avoid the IRS, Pastor Ron finds the 501(c)3 a restriction on what he sees as his 1st Amendment “right” to sermonize against the evil-doing secularist, homosexual (and potential Antichrist), liberal government agenda. In order to keep his 501(c)3, however, he may not politic from his pulpit.

Sorry, but rules are rules, and if Pastor Ron really wants to compete in the market place of political ideas, he’ll have to come out from under that 501(c)3 tax shelter that we secularists help pay for. We, however, are not holding our breath.