RIO RANCHO — Pastor Robert Hall did something Sunday that few clergy do for fear of running afoul of the federal government. He endorsed candidates from the pulpit — specifically John McCain, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce and Dan East, the GOP Congressional District 3 candidate. And with those words of support, Hall just made himself a target of the IRS. But is he worried?

Not so much.

“I want people to know what the Bible says about morality and I want them to apply it to their lives, especially in the voting booth,” Hall said. “I know there are people in our congregation who will vote the other way, and I still love them. I won’t judge them.”

Hall participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday and was among pastors at 31 churches across the nation that endorsed candidates from the pulpit. The numbers are so low for a reason: An IRS rule specifies that any 501(c)3 charitable organization cannot support political candidates and risks losing its nonprofit status if it does.

Hall is so sure that what he did was right, he plans to call the IRS himself to tell them he crossed the line. What the IRS has never done, however, is revoke a church’s IRS status, Hall said. Even if it did send a letter saying the 501(c)3 status was in jeopardy, churches don’t need a letter from the IRS to be tax exempt, he said.

“Then they’ll have to do what they have to do,” he told the Independent.

Hall participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday as part of a national movement to challenge the IRS rule that prohibits pastors from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit. Many more churches, including some in New Mexico signed on for the movement, but Calvary Rio Rancho — which is off N.M. 528 — was the only church in the state to violate the IRS code, which specifies that any 501(c)3 charitable organization cannot support political candidates.

Hall said it was time to take a stand, and he did that Sunday, telling his congregation that on matters of morality, and as Christians, he believes McCain should be our next president, Pearce should be elected to the U. S. Senate and voters should choose East in CD3.

Hall made his endorsements in front of many of the church’s 1,600 members during two sermons, saying he has the right to do so under the First Amendment. He added that his congregation cheered when he gave his opinions on Sunday.

He said he has no regrets about his endorsements.

“I say that these candidates have stands that are as close as possible to my own and to Christians on issues of morality,” Hall said.

Specifically, Hall said he endorsed those three candidates he did because they best support the appointment of judges who would support a pro-life agenda and who define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Hall said abortion and same-sex marriages are not part of the Christian belief system and he could not support candidates who believe in a woman’s right to choose or who believe in changing the traditional understanding of marriage.

“Barack Obama will appoint judges who move us away from our constitutional liberties and away from the moral foundations of America,” he said. “I think McCain will be a stricter constitutionalist.”

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, which encouraged pastors to flout the IRS rule, have said they will defend the First Amendment rights of pastors who engaged in free speech from the pulpit on Pulpit Freedom Sunday. Pastors such as Hall oppose any attempt by the IRS to use the Johnson Amendment to remove a church’s tax-exempt status because a pastor exercised his constitutional right to engage in religious speech from the pulpit.  The goal is to have the Johnson Amendment declared unconstitutional.

So far, Hall does not think there have been any complaints to the IRS about his endorsements. There have been complaints elsewhere, however, filed in at least half a dozen cases in other states by the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Hall said that while the three candidates he endorses are Republican, the movement to allow pastors to speak publicly about politics is not based on party affiliation.

“I’ll be preaching about the poor in the coming weeks,” Hall said. “And my sermon might not coincide with the Republicans that day.”

Hall said pastors are the only segment of the population in America who can’t stand up and talk about politics.

“We can talk to our congregation about life’s most difficult aspects, from sex and marriage, work ethics, drugs, alcohol and families,” he said. “Yet we’re being told by the IRS that we can’t talk about politics. We as pastors can say we believe abortion is wrong, but we can’t tell our congregation how to apply that moral belief in the voting booth. We are being told that we are the only people in America who don’t have Freedom of Speech, and that’s wrong.”

Hall said in the past, he has had to go right up to the line when it came to endorsing candidates, but that this year’s election is too important for him to stay back. He said that if pastors continue to be silenced, then the future of other professions — teachers, the media and journalists — could be next.

“This all falls under the umbrella of censorship,” he said. “Down the road, who will be next? It was time for someone to stand up.”

ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley agreed, saying “Pastors have a right to speak about Biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment.  No one should be able to use the government to intimidate pastors into giving up their constitutional rights.”

The Alliance has begun monitoring any IRS investigations that result from the participating pastors’ sermons.

“If you have a concern about pastors speaking about electoral candidates from the pulpit, ask yourself this:  should the church decide that question, or should the IRS?” said Stanley of the ADF.  “IRS rules don’t trump the Constitution—and the First Amendment certainly trumps the Johnson Amendment.  Churches were tax exempt long before the IRS even existed.”

A list of pastors who participated in Pulpit Freedom Sunday is available at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/PFSparticipants.pdf.