A PASTOR DEFENDS HIS RIGHTS

                                            LIBERTY BAPTIST TABERNACLE

SENIOR PASTOR WAYNE WILLIAMS

Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, lawyer, and minister, has continued to spew opposition to my First Amendment rights!  I have sat by silently as he and his organization have continued their attack articles against me and my church. The time has come for me to exercise my constitutional rights in response to Mr. Lynn.

Churches existed in the USA long before Mr. Lynn came along.  They were exempt as churches from government taxation because they were churches, not because they were granted special privileges by the IRS.

The First Amendment was drafted to protect the rights of churches (religious establishments). “Congress shall make NO law” restricts giving power to the state over the church. The issue of who was over whom was settled with the First Amendment language – “NO LAW”. What law does Mr. Lynn claim I broke by exercising my free speech rights?  If Congress has passed a law giving the IRS some kind of power over the church, that law was unconstitutional from the time it was passed, because it was a law! The First Amendment says “Congress shall make NO LAW”! Randy Rasmussen was correct to declare the IRS rule unconstitutional!  Why has Barry W. Lynn not addressed this matter properly? Does he want his readers to be as ignorant of the First Amendment church rights as he seems to be himself? 

Mr. Lynn needs to take a good long look at South Dakota’s State Motto. It was adopted in 1889, ninety-eight years after the Bill of Rights of 1791. It reads: “Under God the people rule.”  It means that God is ABOVE the people and the state. “The people” are the same as “We the people” who created the state’s government. The people still exist, and God still exists. God is the giver of life and liberty now, just as He was in 1776. The “people” who created the state cannot rule OVER God! Their only place is UNDER God! Mr. Lynn believes we are under the state and that tax exempt status is a privilege granted to churches by the state, with conditions attached, thus placing the church UNDER the state. But I know, as did the people of the great state of South Dakota when they drafted the state motto that God is OVER the people, not UNDER them!  Benjamin Franklin knew this fact when helping to draft the US Constitution. He said that he had learned over his long life that “God governs in the affairs of men.”

Let the pledge to our honored and revered national flag make the case even stronger: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation UNDER God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Some who reject that God has any place in government have tried to remove “under God” from the pledge. Makes one wonder why!  Has Mr. Lynn been involved in that effort? Just wondering since he wants to place the church under the state.

God’s Son, Jesus the Christ, started the church. The state did not!  He said, “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Why does Mr. Lynn, being a clergyman, want to put Jesus Christ’s church under the state’s taxing powers?  South Dakota’s State Constitution, Article XI, Section 6, dealing with taxes, exempts churches from property taxes. Our church has been exempt from its beginning. Does Mr. Lynn plan to move the IRS to take away from us this tax exemption? Not likely! He wants the IRS to make us pay income taxes as a church ministry. How does government tax God? They would have to use the tithe money which is the main source of revenue for a church.

The church is a fixed entity, but the government is not! Let us not forget what our Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Governments are created to secure God-given and unalienable Rights which God has given to the people. When government ceases to protect these Rights, it has lost it purpose for existing. If government will not protect our God-given Rights, then “we the people” must step forward to protect them. This is the main reason certain citizens would not approve the new Constitution without the protection of a Bill of Rights! 

Barry W. Lynn needs to know that if I had lived in the days of Baptists Isaac Backus and John Leland, I would have joined them to insist on a Bill of Rights, especially to protect Religious Liberties from a government power grab, or a power grab by any civil organization such as Americans United. This is my time to live and work, and I will fight, even unto my death, to protect Religious Liberties from anyone who tries to take them away! And I do mean anyone! Mr. Lynn and his organization have chosen to try to take away my God-given Religious Liberties. It is time for him to check history to find out how Baptists feel about their God-given rights and responsibilities. We have always taken them very seriously! I advise Mr. Lynn to take a different course with regards to my God-given religious liberties! He may harass and threaten me with the IRS, but HE WILL NOT TAKE AWAY MY GOD-GIVEN UNALIENABLE RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES! 

 Pastor Wayne Williams-Rapid City, SD