Church to become more political . Theis the area code in area. For the democrats, 202 7488000 and for republicans 202 7488001. If you are an independent, 202 7488002. If you want to join in the conversation go to facebook. Com cspan. We will get your calls and comments on the issue in a moment but first, frontpage story in the Washington Post. All eyes on france. The election taking place in that country. Frances divide mirrors the last in a piece this morning from the Washington Post. Ever since donald trump proved last november that anything is possible in the topsyturvy new world of western politics, may 7 has been circled on european calendars with a mix of anticipation and dread. The rightwing populist, the president ial election in france, a country scarred by unemployment and terrorism, seem offer forhe next big global order in their own nationalist and nativist and protectionist image. To the mainstream it looked like a possible third strike after trump and brexit with the potential to doom the european union, nato, and other members of the transatlantic alliance. If anything, the campaign has solidified the new fracture line in modern politics. The choice voters face on sunday illustrates the profound new chasm in the west between those who favor open, globalized societies and others who proposed close and nationalized ones. Voters facing a choice that faces mirrors a divide in the west. We will have more on the French Election later in the program and a reminder when we cover the debate that took place next wednesday last wednesday. It is available on our website at cspan. Org. This get your comments on the issue of religious freedom. Fromis another headline the Washington Post on president trumps executive order which really sets up what we want to talk about. These active order seeking to allow churches to engage in more political activity. Here is the president from the rose garden last week. This executive order direct target not to unfairly churches and religious organizations for political speech. No one should be censoring sermons or targeting pastors. Under my administration, free speech does not end at the steps of a cathedral or a synagogue or any other house of worship. We are giving our churches their voices back. We are giving them back in the highest form. With this executive order, we also make clear that the federal government will never penalize any person for their protected religious beliefs. That is why i am, today, directing the department of justice to develop new rules to ensure these religious protections are afforded to all americans. Groupsre more than 50 that sued the Previous Administration for violating their religious freedom. Were widespread. The abuses were all over. Steve the president in the rose garden joined by Vice President mike pence who had a key role in crafting this executive order on the issue of religious freedom. Some tweets coming in, this from separation of church and state was a wise move in crafting the basis of our nation. If political, they must be taxed. From jodey, most churches are only interested in your soul and not how you are going to vote in the next election. Another one, why does trumpcare about church . He has not attended since his inauguration which was his first time. We are going to make references to the Johnson Amendment, put in place by senator Lyndon Johnson. Description. Ic groups, taxexempt which the irs calls 501 c 3 organizations from endorsing for political campaigns. Because churches fall under the tax code the ban applies to them as well. Oh sherry in columbus, ohio. Do you think they will become more political . If you will read thomas statute of virginia religious liberty written in the 1780s and James Madisons memorial and you will find that they were both against getting any kind of religion that they had over in europe where the pope ran everything. Steve we do have a line set up for religious leaders and that 2027 488003. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. You know, the religious right controls and imposes itself more secular moreing than the leftwing secular imposes and controls the rightwing religious conservatives. Steve and your point is . Caller we live in a secular society. We are still fighting each other. We are divided as a result. I actually dont believe in all of this Tax Exemption for any religious group of any denomination. We are fighting each other and we are being divided along religious lines and i dont understand why the push from the religious right is nonstop to try to control and try to manipulate and try to impose itself. Why are they so insecure . Why are they trying to tell everybody else to believe and think and act the way they want to act for themselves . Steve experiment for the call. From the week magazine, it is Available Online at the week. Com. Here is an excerpt. Trump sees questions christians the way he sees americans. This respected and vilified by outsiders just as he wants to reassert american interests abroad, he wants to defend the honor of the christians who voted for him at home. Many conservative christians see themselves as another embattled identity politics group. Trump is their defender regardless of his own sins and he lives in the white house. Catherine in springfield, massachusetts. Democrats line. Caller my kingdom is not of this world. [indiscernible] they told him to go down to the sea and the fish come up, pay for me and you. Right to go have no to the sea for everything. You cant legislate righteousness. Im doing that, the group that created all and put over the church. Nobody has the right to dictate to his church because he is the head of the church. Train theem to sabbath. These pastors have admitted the greatest crime in the world. Steve catherine from springfield, thanks for the call. My question, was this even necessary . The irs does not check for political speech. Dale says ive never been to a church that wasnt political. As long as there is no state church, who cares what they do . Daniel is next in washington, d. C. Caller when anyone opens the business they cannot discriminate. In your private home you can decide what to do but when you open a business you cant say you discriminate against religions, race, or sexual preferences. It is against the law. Listen. This presidency is trying to destroy gods creation by accelerating the climate disaster. This neanderthal cant be returning our country to the stone age. Understand the insane power we invested in the presidency. Now you see that the republicans have suppressed enough votes and manipulated enough election registration that this man got into office and we need to protect our country, our farms, our food, protect it with regulations and common sense legislation. The republicans havent had a good offer in years. I want you to remember, there is only one thing worse than republican and that is a democrat. Please dont forget that. Resist. On pay your taxes. Dont let this neanderthal ,ilthy rich creep from queens where i am from and i know what kind of bully he is. I grew up with them. Dont let them destroy this country or this world with a defeatingsaster and regulations. He is poisoning us. He is poisoning our food. Steve daniel from washington, d. C. Nancy pelosi releasing a statement opposing the executive order. Also some comments from senator Patrick Leahy on twitter. He talks about religious liberty. He can walk a lot by rescinding his unconstitutional muslim ban executive order. From the House Democratic leader saying president trumps executive order on religious liberty is a sad exercise unbecoming of our country. Pennsylvania, on the republican line. James, good morning. Caller im looking at it from a different standpoint because i think we have the wrong question. The question should be, should religious organizations have their First Amendment rights interfered with . They should be permitted to also engage in free speech. A lot of the issues of this day and age are moral issues and we expect religion to address that and not be harassed by irs agents for doing so. As far as the muslim ban goes there was no muslim ban. There was a band for countries that permanently happen to be muslim because the vetting background is extremely difficult for people to do. Theou cant verify information about somebody how can you say a vetting process is thorough . It isnt thorough and needs to be thorough to protect ourselves. I think hopefully we will get some of this stuff straightened out but religious leaders should not have to fear for the irs coming after them to audit them in order to discuss moral issues which many things, such as abortion today, our friend around. Steve thank you james from pennsylvania. This is from another viewer saying political churches and ministries should be taxed. The House Speaker paul ryan showed this week this tweet. I commend donald trump for defending religious liberty. French is is next from louisville, tennessee. You are taking this. Caller when the bill of rights was accepted, there were state churches and they remain that way for a long time. We had prayer in school. Not only in school. States demanded it and then the courts struck it down. Omebodys interfering the churches, from the beginning, had an Important Role to play in the country. They help us decide what is right and wrong. The 10 commandments are referred to throughout the early period of our history. We open congress with prayer. That religion is not out but some people want it to be. Religion has an Important Role in every buddys life and the government should not be an opponent. Steve on the republican line from tennessee. A couple of tweets from our viewers. Send us your comments or join us on facebook. Becausewhat churches do i carry a heavier tax burden because they dont carry a tax burden. Toe problem is if you want be taxexempt and benefit from it you should not be allowed to use that benefit in politics. From david, contrary to many believers we are not a christian nation. These groups are using religion for political purposes. From the center of american progress, she writes repealing the Johnson Amendment could taint the sanctity of the faith leaders message prompting congress to wonder if faith are based onngs religious texts or political benefactors. Even the appearance of outside influence could undermine faith leaders moral authority. That from the center for american progress. Stephen from kentucky. Good morning. Caller how are you this morning . Steve thanks for weighing in. Caller i wanted to mention a few things. They go along with this topic. The bigger question that i think we need to be acting asking is how are we going to eradicate the extremism overseas if we refuse to do so here . This war abroad has nothing to do with pitting one group against the other. Namely, in this case, christianity against islam. Rather, it transcends that and it is really about spirituality, which encompasses love, peace, healing, enlightenment, stability, the aesthetic which goes into the arts. Some people find faith in the arts. Liberty andpts like justice for all that have been around since the inception of our country. Religion, organized whether it be christianity, islam, judaism, they are all cut from the same cloth. Let me be clear about something because some people are going to say im antigod by saying this. I believe in god very strongly. Ive been in recovery from an illness for the past two years and my faith in god has gotten me through this. Im saying is it is not these philosophies that are the problem but rather the ruthless coterie of power hungry monsters that have bastardized these concepts the on recognition. Steve from prospect kentucky, thanks for the call. I hear some construction going on in the building. If you hear a coming sound above me that explains it. We welcome our listeners on cspan radio and coasttocoast on serious xm and channel 124. Rick says this churches, do what you want and pay your taxes. The white house issuing this tweet. Religious liberty is the First Amendment of our constitution as a founding principle of our nation. Don is joining us next from tennessee. Independent line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I find absolutely nothing wrong with what trump is proposing here. One of the principles of christianity is that you are in this world but you are not supposed to be of the world. There is nothing wrong with reminding your congregation to whatsponsible, to consider principles are at stake. And what kind of a world do you want to be in even though you are not supposed to be of it . What could possibly be wrong with that . It is not like they are sticking out a sign that does, support , sponsor hillary clinton, or whatever. They are not sticking a name out there. It is reminding people to be aware of the principles at stake. Steve thank you for the call. Another tweet from a viewer. Religious liberty usually leads to Southern Baptists and persecuting methodists. We have a line for religious leaders. Next from north fort myers, florida, good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to let you know, this is kind of rough to think about for a lot of people. It is for myself. I am definitely a person who believes in the lord and i try to do the best that i can and i am definitely not a racist person but as far as the president is concerned, with all of this banning of mexican people this and mexican people that, we really need to stop and think about the fact that and i dont know how to put this, im going to put this as delicately as possible and respectfully as possible the white man and the black man doesnt usually do a lot of farming. You cant get us out there in all truthfulness to pick these vegetables and crops that have to be presented by these farmers. To feed america. Is, by takinging these poor people out of the workplace or by causing them to be scared to go to work, it is going to hurt the farmers, it is going to kill americas farming and crops and all of that and everything is going to start imported. Grocery prices are going to skyrocket. This man is going to third world this country. There are already people who can barely afford groceries, people that are on food stamps. Expect isat does he going to happen . People are going to starve to death. He poor going to die. Farmers are going to hurt because they cant afford to pay wouldnt ormally not just people of a different color but people who normally wouldnt do this types of jobs like the Migrant Workers do. It is terrible. There are some big problems coming for this country, especially with this racist mexican thismexican that, no, people who come from exit code or any country for that fact, and that break the law, then they should be banned from coming into the country ever again, but steve im going to stop you there. Thank you for the call. A quick look at the new york times. What is it like to live in west palm beach, florida as the neighbor becomes president of the United States . Good morning from the new york times, also available at nytimes. Com. Hacking gives final jolt to francis cap collection. We have more on Emmanuel Macron and marine le pen. Macron is holding onto a lead but the numbers coming in today. Denny is running us from silver spring, maryland. Republican line. Caller i say, any executive boot of theifts the irs off the neck of the American People is a good thing. You should go ahead and make it a law. I hate the irs, i hate the threat of the irs, i hate the penalties, and now Somebody Just wants to practice their faith and the irs has the power to tax them . That is a bad thing. Hopefully, one day, we get rid of the irs. Steve thank you for the call. Father frank with priests for life has also issued a statement on president trumps executive order. It reads in part the right to act on ones religious beliefs is not unlimited but the federal government, by law, is severely forcected in what it can churches or religious individuals to do. Over the last eight years the Obama Administration ignore those restrictions, seeking to impose its will. No more. Trumps executive order is resetting a principal that has historically guided the federal government and protected our rights. Father frank weighing in on the order. Here is background on the Johnson Amendment. That video is available on our website at cspan. Org. Lets watch. I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment. An amendment pushed by Lyndon Johnson many years ago. President donald trump his eyes set on the Johnson Amendment, but if you are blanking on what that is, dont worry. We got you covered. In 1954, senator lyndon b. Johnson introduced a change to prohibitsde that nonprofits from directly or indirectly endorsing or donating to political candidates. If they do, they lose their exempt status. That includes universities and churches. An interesting thing is it had nothing to do with churches when it was introduced in 1954. Letervative nonprofits materials for folks to vote for johnsons primary vote which didnt sit well with him. He proposed a ban to protect his own seat and there was no church involved. At all. That is where the controversy is now. Trumps argument about the Johnson Amendment is that it infringes on the right to worship according to our own beliefs. That campaigning is a way to put your religious police to action. But the Johnson Amendment has not stopped religious organizations from endorsing candidates. In 2000, Jerry Falwell told churchgoers to vote for the bush of your choice. The irs has rarely punished any church for political statements. Because the amendment is part of the tax code, the only way to get rid of it would be through the legislative process. But as president , trump could have the irs not enforce it if you wanted to. If he wanted to. Steve some background on our topic for this sunday morning, do you want your church to become more political . This is a headline from the Washington Post as the president is signing the order to allow churches to engage in more activity. Lauren from rogers, ohio. Good morning. Caller i dont feel that churches should be allowed to be political because it is an abuse of power. People that i know that are really religious, they pretty much worship, whether it is a priest or a minister or a rabbi and i think it is really an abuse of power and it should not be allowed. I dont have anything else to say. Thank you. Steve lets go to john from columbus, georgia. Thanks for calling in on the independent line. Caller my answer to the question, do you want your church to become more political is no. The reason for this answer is because if you read the bible and have faith in what it says, then you are told by god that in the end times, if you are following gods will and your church was following gods will then you will be completely opposed by the world. You will have no worldly success. You will not be part of political events. As far as the taxes are concerned, god commands us to obey mans laws while we are in mans world. So if the laws say that we need to pay taxes then yes, we do. If they dont, we dont. But we need to stay out of politics because true christians will be hated by the politicians. Steve final point . Caller my final point is, americans, if any of you have problems with trump being our president , exercise your right to impeach him. Steve on what grounds . Well, i think if the majority of americans manned that the president and demand that the president be impeached than the government would have no choice. The grounds are, we the people who elected him admit that we messed up and dont want to have him. Steve thanks for the call. Taxing joel goldsteins church alone would probably balance the federal budget. From michael, Lyndon Johnson was settling a score with the churches in texas. Lets go to john in indiana, our line for religious leaders. Thanks for calling in. Caller hi. I am concerned about how things are going today. We are no longer part of the gop, the grand old party, or the Democratic Party anymore. We need to embrace this as religious people. As people that can embrace the difference in religions. Ive been to saudi arabia, ive never had my chance to go around mecca but i did defend the kingdom as a combat veteran in iraq. I think if the president signs off all these executive orders there should be one and that should be the removal of all boxes that indicate your race, gender, or your religion. Money that is in the bible. None of that is in the constitution. None of that is in our declaration of independence. This is what makes us americans, the fact that we are unique, that we are beautiful people. That are different in every way. We shouldnt have any boxes on any government form signifying that difference. That is all i had to say. Steve john from greenfield, indiana. Lets go to our facebook page. Over 150 of you have already commented and joined in the conversation. This is from stacy, who says i go to church, a Diverse Church with a diverse once of opinions bunch of opinions. The minute a pastor starts campaigning, i will be gone. Barbara if they have the money to give political candidates they should lose their taxexempt status, especially on real estate holdings. No lawss shall make respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the exercise thereof. Becky says why not . We can invite in selected candidates to give their pitch to the convert the congregation. Ance we will be endorsing candidate or party. Another person says religion and politics should always stay separated. Lets go to brendan in ohio. Republican line. Morning. Caller good morning. Church and state should stay separate. The government if the if theant to be in churches want to get involved in politics than they should be taxed the same as everyone else. Brenda. Hank you, scott in charlottesville, virginia. Democrats line. Good morning. It is i guess my take on that churches do have a rich history on both sides of the political spectrum of being part of the political process. I think to ignore that ignores i agree with many of the sort of conservative colors that it does have a place in the church the conservative callers that it does have a place in the church. Congregation,d within the lead directly to a particular candidate. That seems fine if that is what a church wants to do. The cynical issue is that the point of Tax Exemption is that you shouldnt be allowed to engage in political activity subsidized by taxpayer money. That is the part that gets missed. I think trumps cynical play to the right on this steve so your point on the taxexempt status would be what . Caller if you are going to engage in political activity, you shouldnt be subsidized by the federalist government. It seems the whole point is that is the reason for Tax Exemption. That if you are not engaged in andtical act 70 activity you should not be subsidized by taxpayers. Steve amanda issued this statement with the baptist joint committee. It reads in part as follows. The vast majority of congregants opposed candidate endorsements in their houses of worship. Will continue to speak truth to power and preach on moral issues no matter how controversial and they dont need a change in the tax law to do it. Getting rid of the protection in the law that insulates 501 c 3 organizations from endorsements would destroy our congregations and our charities from within over disagreements on partisan campaigns. That is from the baptist joint committee. Back to your phone call. Debbie from washington, pennsylvania. Caller warrington, pennsylvania. Not washington. When the johnson law went in it in really for 501 c 3 s general and one of the things they had to do was to their political activity and that was taxable. That is when you get the appeals in the mail to give. They will say at the bottom, this is a 501 c 3 and they are not taxdeductible. I dont believe churches should get active in terms of endorsing candidates. They have always been, to a certain extent, parishioners will do what they want to do, but i think that it will destroy many churches. Past 20 or, in the 30 years, congregations split because politics were discussed and because people were not pure enough. In the long run, it will hurt churches. I am not religious. I do not like to be told what i have to do. I do not like to be forced to pray you are not forced but i think private religion is probably more spiritual than forcing people to listen to to have to be a subject to prayers in public schools. Steve thank you for the call. A couple of comments on our facebook page, from nathan, who says if you open the door for your church to become political, that means open the door for all churches to become political. Bonnie says no. People come to church to be lifted up. If you want politics, turn on the tv. Actors and churches are always free to support issues but as soon as they support a Political Party or candidate they must pay taxes. Nd no jesus never spoke of politics. He openly criticized leaders for leading people astray. Betty says i would walk out if our priest started lecturing on politics. Church is a thank you or you from all of those lies and bullcrap. Payjohn they should ordinary income tax on all of their income. Let me remind you about the Johnson Amendment. Of ther to it at the top program. Senator Lyndon Johnson put it in place and it was signed into law under president eisenhower. It bars taxexempt charitable groups which the irs calls section 501 c 3 organizations from endorsing candidates and getting involved in political campaigns. Because churches fall under this section of the law, the ban applies to them as well. Morning,re asking this will the president s executive order result in churches becoming more political and do we want that . Laura from austin, texas. Thank you for waiting period good morning. Thank you for taking my call. We would not allow churches to become political because in our constitution it says you have a right to practice your religion and it also implies that we have a right to be free from religion. These are the steps along the way to becoming a theocracy. If you want an example all you have to do is look at the middle east and look towards isis to see what the future is going to be when you inject religion into politics. Christianity, in england, during the time of henry the eighth when they had to change from catholicism to protestantism or whatever they called it at the time they burned people in the streets because they were heretics. I dont want to see that in this country. A lot of my ancestors came to this country to be free of political religion. No. If you are going to talk about politics in church you should not beginning a taxexemptopn on any of your assets. That is the way we need to keep it. Keep it civil. Steve thank you for the call from texas. To North Carolina, walter on the republican line in North Carolina. Good sunday morning. Caller good morning, steve. Here i am in Western North carolina enjoying this Global Warming and 30 degrees right now. Seven inches of rain just over the last two days. Steve that is what we are feeling in the east. Washington, d. C. As well. I think the rain has passed over us. Caller anyway, to make a long story short im not a religious person. The only time i go to churchs funerals and weddings. I try to avoid them as much as possible. At 73 years old im attending more funerals than i am weddings. Anyway, i have no problem with trump did. I agree with it. Fine for ais congregation to have a discussion about the elections, whether they are democratic, republican, independent. I have no problem with it. That is all ive got to say. Good talking to you. It has been a long time, six months since the last time i called in. Steve dont be a stranger, walter. We like to hear from you. Saystweet from kent who the Clinton Foundation is tax exempt. They are political so what is wrong with religious groups being political . Walter shapiro has an opinion piece. Writes the following. It is impossible to predict with certainty how anything will play in the november 2018 congressional election. What we know is the Senate Republicans will be responding to far different political cues than their counterparts in the house. If trump gets a real ceremony that voters can judge whether they are better off than they were with obamacare. If the republicans failed to fix the problems with obamacare, even low information voters will know that the gop controls all of the levers of government and refused to act. And again, from morgan shapiro, who has written a piece. Its go to thomas from statesville, North Carolina. Acta the question of religious issues and religious freedom and whether or not you think your church should become more political. Good morning. Caller i definitely have an and empic no and static hatic no. Religions should not be involved in politics. I dont have any problems with religion. I am not religious at all. Any specific religion, or all of them, whichever way you want to look at them, directly involved, it harkens back to religion ruling the land. Back into the dark ages, what when religion did rule, there is a reason why they were called the dark ages. Thank you. Steve the new executive director of families usa will join us at the top of the hour to talk about the health care debate. Later, Daniel Krauthammer joins us, looking at president trump. He joins us to talk about that and later, a look at the elections in france. Newsmakers at 10 00 eastern time, 7 00 on the west coast. Froma is joining us Western North carolina. Good morning. Caller here is what makes america great. The separation of church and state. If we cannot have something as powerful as a church which has the control of your conscience control ofth the things getting done, the reason it is separated is a form of checks and balances. You cannot have the government telling you you should pray. You have a right to your own right of conscience. If you dont want to pray or if you pray differently than other people. For that woman who said, we have prayer in this country from the beginning of the country, she has to understand, we did some things wrong in the beginning of the country. We had slavery. We had women who couldnt vote. There were a lot of things we did wrong. If you need your government to check your water, you need your government to make sure your medicine is clean for the guy who doesnt want to pay taxes. If we need our government to do specific things, and telling us not to pray is not one of them. Steve vivian says only congress can repeal the amendments of what so what does trumps executive order do . John joins us from pinehurst, North Carolina. Blican line i support churches being allowed to go ahead and put out their political views. I would like to know what my church thinks about certain issues. Steve if they do that, should your church be taxexempt . Caller personally i dont think anybody should be taxexempt. I think everybody should be paying taxes. But i dont have any problems even if they are. The Johnson Amendment was put into place to stifle churches and religious leaders from giving their political views because it hurt johnsons or it hurtians them with their voters. Churches are being cycled. Havingole bit about people burning at the stake and all of this kind of stuff if we do this is a bunch of hogwash. It is silliness. This is modern times. We are not talking about 1400 here. I have no problem with it and i would like to know what they think. Every organization should have their opinions put out there for all of us to decide what we think and decide for ourselves how we want to vote. Steve thanks for the call on the republican line. Thenew york times magazine, money issue, looking at the Global Economy and connections to the Global Economy is the color story the cover story. Jared kushners access to power. Talking about president trumps soninlaw. From time magazine, we are not ready for the next pandemic. Weekly, the new war on old rules, the strategy for gutting 20 years of regulation. Ie from georgia. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking our call. We got a chance to express ourselves through cspan which is awesome. On this religion issue, i think separation of church and state is, of course, one of the founding principles of our country. Othere here from countries because we wanted to be free. But often, dominant religions impose their will on other religions. Often inhat happens so modern times, we have become more careful not to let the dominant religion in a country take over from other religions. I think this is one reason that churches should be separated from state. There are a couple of things to do with taxes, which i think are interesting. When you consider the fact that people do get deductions from their income taxes for charitable directions to the money, and therefore that has already been taxfree from the people when it is donated to the church. So you get a double taxation because if the church is allowed to turn around and use that ends,to support political then to me, that is a contradiction of the values of the church. Said, just speaking from the Christian Point of view, jesus said to give unto caesar things that are caesars and unto god the things that are gods. For the call. This is from maria. Im so sick of hearing separation of church and state. The women could vote if they owned the land. John from North Carolina tax on what . Few churches have income. David garo is out with a new book, rising star. ,he making of a barack obama the choices he made about his identity, work, and even love. His relationship with Michelle Obama and previous girlfriends are part of this book. That is a picture of a very young barack obama. From warsaw, new york. Independent line. Caller thanks so much for cspan. I have been listening to it since it started back with brian lamb in 1979. Steve absolutely. Caller i think it is pretty basic what we are talking about today about church and state. , believe, when the pharisees who are kind of like the crumb bumbs who are trying to pull the wool over our eyes, jesus christ summed it up basically and the lady before me said the same thing. He said it is very simple. Render to caesar the things that are caesars and to god the things that are gods. I wish that all the people representing god today they would be more concerned about their souls as opposed to money and all the politicians tough. Leave that to the politicians. Steve the woman of the hour is a story from the sunday style of the new york times. Judy woodruff was at the passing last year going through when eiffel, continuing to be a role model for female journalists. She is 70 years old and at the helm of news hour on pbs. From tulsa, oklahoma, republican line. Caller religious freedom become anyas positionity in the that the Democratic Party is more and more antichristian. Positionssed on the of the party and they will be the one objecting to pastors theking their mind because position is very difficult for killing to support babies and being a true christian on the subject of abortion. Planned parenthood. The support of muslims by the Democratic Party, from the standpoint of sharia law basically, this is, trump signing this, is a step in the direction of again, allowing from thef speech christians. The christians are the ones that are constantly attacked in the media and by the Democratic Party and they are one in the same. Steve sandy in orlando, florida. Democrats line. Good morning. Caller i just wanted to recount an experience i had during the elections when i was standing in line to do early voting and behind me were a group of individuals from one of the churches that had their paperwork that said, who a were supposed to vote for. Who they were supposed to vote for. This was during the bush elections and i thought, well. You cant think for yourself . You have to bring a paper . I heard them discussing that they were supposed to vote for these people but they had no idea really about the content of the individuals they were voting for. Maybe the president. Maybe they had some experience. But it really was an eyeopener to me and i thought, is this allowed . I guess now it is. Steve back to our facebook page, this is from peter who says the following. The issue isnt whether nonprofits have freedom of speech. The issue is the tax exempt status of the contribution to the nonprofit. The aclu is a nonprofit and contributions to it are not tax exempt. If churches want to be political they can maintain their nonprofit that a just their nonprofit status. From bob. To issues there is room accommodate feeding the hungry, there is no rule that there is no room to have religions advocate for an individual or party because of the persons party. This is our media asking if you churchwith merging the and state. You are being trolled. Eileen in beaver falls, pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller i dont think the church should become more political. Andminister that got on cnn said we should forgive trump for sexually assaulting women and that we all should forgive him for this was speaking from his church. He was representing the people of his church. He went on to praise trumps policies. That is what was wrong. It made me feel uncomfortable and it made me doubt his words. Im just wondering how much of a from made, even in some backward way, made to his college. Steve david has this tweet. There is enough division in this country with religious opinions. On the pulpit, that will only add to it. Religion is the root of most wars. A thousand of you have already commented on our facebook page. You can join in on facebook. Com cspan. From houston, texas. Patricia on the democrats line. Good morning. Caller i wanted to comment. We are on the slow road if anybody is paying attention on the slow road to discrimination. The religious freedom act that he signed with the executive things thatcerning last summer, when the lady didnt want to make a cake or wheny wedding they dont want to have anything to do with certain people. Ok, that is the beginning of a road to discrimination. The next thing you know, he will be signing in an executive order to integrate stash to segregate schools again. To segregate schools again. I thought congress was the one to make the laws. When barack obama was in office the republicans, all they did was complain about him signing executive orders. Even taking him to court. Are they now donald trump has signed so many executive orders, that is all he does. The next thing you know it is going to be a dictatorship. Whatever donald trump wants to do is what he is going to do and if we dont watch it we are on the road backwards. Steve thank you for the call. Fromng in, a pastor ethical, new york. Ithaca, new york. Caller it is pastor Michael Vincent crea, good morning. I want to thank everyone who is behind the scenes every day that lets me and everyone here, all of us just share in a congenial our thoughts are, whether they are political or spiritual. To your question, first of all, i was raised catholic. My Pastoral Ministry is on my own after getting my masters. I work with jew, christian, muslim, buddhist. I call my ministry one world like systems. Developing one world for the common good of humanity. Pulpitver had a paycheck, Political Party or proselytization. I try to facilitate selfdetermined projects. One of the things i even said to the colleague that answered the phone. We dont realize how entrenched we are already, as the last lady said, how we are becoming discriminatory. It has been built into our system. Maybe our question of today should be, do you want your religious organizations to become more political . I have never taken any donations. 25 years work for over has been pro bono. I think everyone ought to be taxed. Share this one quote by the republican Barry Goldwater who would probably be seen as the most extreme religious of candidates and he said this was given to me and i looked it up from facebook. Mark my words. If and when these preachers get ,ontrol of the Republican Party and they are sure trying to do so, it is going to be a terrible problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. These christians believe they are acting in the name of god so they cant and wont compromise. I know, i have tried to deal with them. That hits the nail on the head if i can make a final point, my mother was born in occupied ireland. Out of 10,000 catholics, when i went there in 1960 83 months ,fter dr. King was assassinated they couldnt vote. Catholics were not allowed to have property. Steve in ireland . Caller yes, this was 1968. Only eight could vote. My whole life, my mother had to get an order of protection. What we need to do is realize our human rights are not from a king or queen or hope or rabbi or even the mother or father. They start from, out of our mothers womb to our own tomb and we need to have a new system that is inclusive of everybody and protects, upholds, or pretends defend our rights. Steve a couple of comments from facebook. Terrance said we are obsessed with this idea of ups and downs which is really a nowin situation whether it is racial, cultural, religious or political. And i want to see the pulpit turned into a campaign ad. And on the republican line from kentucky, chris. Good morning to you. Caller i do believe in separation of church and state. I am catholic. Toxick religion can be the same way patriotism can be cut sick and that is why we have had zealots take over throughout history. Somebodyeve that if has Tax Exemption and political views they deserve the right to lose their taxexempt and. And exempt taxexemption. I know im the last call for this session, but i am against being usedddamn on the airwaves. Steve you just used it. Caller we have stop certain language being used on tv so i dont understand why the sec cannot the fcc cannot stop this. Steve it is a can of order is available on our website along with our programming. Check it out on cspan. Org. We welcome our viewers watching what is going on in great britain. The election scheduled next month. Today, the voting going on in france. In just a moment, the executive director of families usa will be here to talk about the debate over health care. Later, from las vegas, is Daniel Krauthammer on his new piece looking at the debate over the place of nationalism and the Trump Presidency in todays politics. But first, cspans newsletter program. Newsmakers program. Talking about airline overbooking and other issues brought up in this past week involving airlines and the passenger. Heres an excerpt. I raised questions about evacuation tests. They are jamming in more seeds and we dont do evacuation tests. The faa used to do them. They dont. Weve got to start with safety and say, if you are going to jam more seats in you have to demonstrate that you can evacuate that plane by the standard in 90 seconds. Number two is what is going on in the cabin which is air rage because they are jamming so many people in. We question whether we need more but there is ats whole host of issues. I think the airlines last year they got 3 billion in change fees. You want to change her ticket . 3 billion dollars. 40 of their profits came out of charging people twice for a ticket and yet they still overbooked the planes and southwest said they are never going to overbooked again, but united says it is their business model. Last0 people were bumped year. Weve got to question whether or not we allow overbooking of airplanes. Hekevin shuster indicated isnt looking for legislation right away to address these issues but he doesnt feel that the airline satisfactorily addressed the concerns we were hearing this week that the committee very well could. Are anyhink there smaller issues the committee might peel off for the reauthorization bill . When issue you brought up was the length of the contract that airlines have passengers read that they most often dont because they are so long. 57 pages, 40,000 words. That was a couple of airlines. There should be a simple language disclosure of the rights that are most important to people. What happens if my flight is delayed . What happens if my flight is canceled . There are probably five or six things that are important in terms of what obligations might or might not have. Those did the in a simple language disclosure. The airline indicated they might do that. I think we should mandate they do that. Steve cspans Newsmakers Program follows the washington journal every sunday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time. Our guest is oregon democrat peter defazio. He is the ranking democratic member. The pool the full Program Streams on the web at cspan. Org. The new executive director of families usa. Thank you for being with us. Lets talk about health care. Now it moves to the senate. Ultimately, do you think the president will sign a Health Care Bill . What would it look like . Frederick there is a strong likelihood that something will eventually make its way through congress to the president s desk. What it looks like it will be difficult to know, what we know now for sure, is that Senate Republicans have been trying to start a new. It is not a starting point. Things are likely to be very different. Steve how so . There are some issues with