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1. Churches have a right of autonomy protected by the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment. Each worshiping community has the right to govern itself and order its life and activity free of government intervention.
2. The government must assert a compelling interest and demonstrate an imminent threat to public safety before the right of autonomy may be set aside in specific instances and government permitted to interfere with internal church activities. The need to separate business activity from residential areas is not sufficient neither to justify use of zoning regulations to prevent prayer meetings in private homes nor to prohibit the use of the church building as a shelter for the homeless.
3. Churches have a fundamental right to be free of government infiltration. Court-approved wiretaps and searches of church premises can only be made on a showing that evidence of crime endangering public health or safety will be removed or destroyed and that no other less intrusive means exist to satisfy the need to preserve such evidence.
4. We concede the appropriateness of some governmental regulation of church activities in the interests of public health and safety. Fire and earthquake regulations, sanitary and building codes may properly be made applicable to churches, provided that they do not entail unreasonable cost, are genuinely health and safety related, and are appropriate to the pattern of church activity rather than a supposed secular analog. A church kitchen used a few hours a month for church groups is not the same as a public restaurant.
5. The government may not require a congregation to maintain a church structure because of its historical significance or subject it to proceedings in eminent domain in order to preserve a church structure. The church should make every effort to cooperate with efforts to preserve esthetic and architectural character but must finally itself be the judge of what religious life and mission require concerning property and its use.
6. Internal disputes within churches, including disputes over church property, should be decided by the highest ecclesiastical authority recognized by both sides before the dispute arose. The application of so-called "neutral principles of law" by civil courts violates the right to autonomy of hierarchical and connectional churches.
7. Those who consent to be governed by a church, including its employees, should not be subject to governmental regulation. We reject the notion that minimum wage laws or other labor regulations may properly be applied to church organizations.
8. As a matter of faith and witness, the church has a moral duty to provide adequate compensation and safe working conditions for its employees and to offer employment without discrimination. The church should voluntarily meet or exceed the standards and practices required by law for nonreligious employers.
9. Courts and public agencies called upon to assess the bona fides of a claim to protection under the First Amendment should not base their decision on traditional notions of religion but should give substantial deference to the self-understanding of that group, looking to the three considerations described in this statement.

1. Individuals should be excused from obeying laws of general application that violate their conscience except when "the gravest abuses endangering paramount interests give occasion for permissible limitation."
2. The legal defense of freedom of conscience must be conceived broadly enough to include freedom for the nonreligious conscience.
3. The protection of religious conscience should not be limited to actions stemming from beliefs shared by all members of one's religious group or to what is required by the creed or order of one's religious group. It includes practice that may be regarded as voluntary by one's religion as well as that which is individually derived.
4. The right of adults to refuse medical treatment for themselves on religious grounds should be upheld; but not their right to withhold medical care for their minor children when such treatment is deemed necessary to prevent death or permanent injury.
5. The diversity of understandings of different religious groups about what constitutes health should be respected.
6. The right to observe the Sabbath and other days of religious obligation should be protected, but not to the significant material disadvantage of co-workers whose days of religious obligation are different or those who are not religiously affiliated.
7. The present selective service law, which requires that conscientious objectors be opposed to all wars, should be changed to allow exemption as well for those opposed only to participation in particular wars on the ground that they are unjust.
8. Not all employment discrimination can be reached by laws. The church should be prepared to expose, analyze, and confront cases of discrimination in public or private employment based on religious conviction or status, as well as on grounds of race, religion, nationality, sex, or sexual orientation, and to provide aid and comfort to the victims.
9. Claims of Christian conscience should not be lightly or cynically made, and should be tested to the maximum extent possible by the counsel of the Christian community.

1. Government payments on behalf of individuals, under programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and scholarship assistance, should without exception be available to clients and students at church-sponsored agencies and institutions on exactly the same terms as if those patients or clients were receiving their services from secular entities.
2. Government should not discriminate against religious institutions and agencies in the expenditure or administration of public funds when the public purpose can be achieved by the religious group in a way that does not support or advance religion. When public funds are made available to private agencies to meet welfare and social service needs, religious programs and agencies should not be excluded provided that:
   1. the service is open to the public without discrimination on the basis of race, age, sex, religion or national, origin;
   2. the service is administered without religious emphasis or content, or religious preference or other discrimination in employment or purchase of services;
   3. no public funds are used by religiously controlled organizations to acquire permanent title to real property. (Where existing religiously owned property requires minor modifications to meet specific requirements of the particular program and there are public funds expressly available for such purpose, they may be used by the church also);
   4. the religious organization or agency is subject to the same provisions for safety, general standards and licensing, qualifications of personnel, and financial accountability as other private agencies.
3. Since each state guarantees the right to a free public elementary and secondary education and maintains universally accessible institutions for that purpose, we oppose as a matter of public policy the use of substantial public funds to support private educational systems, including tax deductions or credits and use of educational vouchers.
4. Where government provides noncurricular services to both public and private schools that involve the itineration of public employees to the institutions, schools sponsored by religious organizations should not be excluded.
5. Tax deductions for contributions to religious agencies, or for payments to religious schools should they be enacted, should not be viewed as support or aid for religion. A policy decision by the state to refrain from taxing is not equivalent to a decision to appropriate public revenues.
6. Service ministries operated by or related to Presbyterian governing bodies, whether or not they receive public funds, should offer all services without restriction based on race, sex, religion, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation, and should conform to requisite health and safety requirements and standards regarding licensing and personnel qualifications. Where such programs are expected to continue for considerable time, placing them under the control of independent community-based bodies should be carefully considered.
7. In light of the division within the religious and public life of this nation concerning government aid for religious schools and the great significance of quality education for all our children, we urge continuing study and reflection on the whole subject at every level of the church. The child benefit, purchase of service, and equal treatment approaches in particular merit careful analysis, both in ongoing constitutional interpretation and in public policy considerations.

1. The state may not use its power to tax or to exempt from taxation, to restrict, or place conditions on the exercise of religion.
2. The state may not tax the central exercise of religion or property essential to the core functions of religion. We hold that the application of the restrictions in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to the speech of the church and its leaders are an unconstitutional limitation on a central exercise of religion.
3. We support exemption of other church property and income as a matter of legislative policy. Such exemptions do not "establish" religion.
4. We concede that some properties and operations of religious organizations may be subjected to taxation by legislative act; but we will resist all efforts to do so by administrative determination, in the face of statutes that exempt churches from taxation, that some properties or activities wholly controlled and operated by the church as part of its mission are "nonreligious."
5. We affirm the legitimacy of taxing unrelated business income and property used to generate such income.
6. Particular taxes or exclusions from taxes should treat religious organizations equally with charitable and nonprofit organizations; religious organizations should not be singled out for either penalty or privilege except for the exemption of property essential to the core functions of religion.
7. Special tax exemptions or burdens for the property and income of ministers or other church employees are inappropriate. They should be phased out over a period long enough to accommodate the reliance of many churches on existing exemptions.
8. Payments to government for specific services billed separately to all property owners are not "taxes" and may legitimately be required of religious organizations at the same rate as for other property owners.
9. Churches should feel no obligation to make voluntary contributions in lieu of taxes, and all such contributions should be truly voluntary. They are not a quid pro quo for tax exemption.

1. The right to choose one's own religion, and to change that choice, is the most fundamental religious liberty. This right must be vigorously protected from governmental intrusion or physical coercion, either by those seeking to convert or by those seeking to prevent conversion. This right should also be protected from fraud, but courts cannot evaluate claims of religions faith.
2. The church should be tolerant of other religions and respect their right to proselytize and practice their beliefs in accordance with the tenets of their faith.
3. We oppose judicial and legislative efforts to interfere with freely chosen and maintained religious commitments by legal adults, whether based on attempts to define legally undesirable "cult" religion, the use of conservator and guardian procedures, or reversal through legally authorized deprogramming.
4. We further oppose the use of civil law by persons disaffected or disenchanted with their religious experience, unless plausible allegations of physical coercion or fraudulent claims related to empirical facts are present. The right of religious freedom carries responsibility for its exercise and the risk of disenchantment.
5. The church should provide counsel, education, and support for the family members and friends of those who have converted to a new faith or undergone a powerful religious experience, and indicate understanding and continued openness to those who have converted.

1. Government must be neutral in matters of religion. It may not show preference of one religion over others, for religion in general, or for religion over nonreligion. While contact and conversation between public officials and religious leaders on public policy issues are certainly appropriate, official institutional ties between government and religion are not. For that reason, we continue to oppose the appointment of ambassadors to the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church.
2. Government may not engage in, sponsor, or lend its authority to religious expression or religious observance. We continue to oppose any constitutional amendment to permit public schools to sponsor prayer.
3. Religious speech and assembly by private citizens and organizations, initiated by them, is protected both by the Free Exercise of Religion and Free Speech clauses of the Constitution and cannot be excluded from public places.
4. The display of religious symbols in connection with private speech and assembly in public places is appropriate and legal. We oppose the permanent or unattended display of religious symbols on public property as a violation of the religious neutrality required of government.
5. Religious speech and assembly in public places may be regulated by government as to time, place, and manner, but only in a neutral manner and not to any greater extent than nonreligious expression.
6. Statutes permitting "moments of silence" in public schools are not inherently unconstitutional but should not be enacted because they are subject to misuse through pressures to allow state-sponsored prayer or endorse religion.
7. If a public secondary school permits genuinely extra-curricular student-initiated group activities in noninstructional time, religious expression should be permitted, subject to the same regulations and restrictions.
8. Public schools may constitutionally teach their students about religion in a neutral way. The incorporation of factual and objective references to the role of religion when teaching history, social studies, art, and literature is essential to a comprehensive and balanced education and should be encouraged and assisted in every possible way.
9. Presbyterians should be particularly vigilant to protect the right to public religious expression for new and unpopular minority faiths, and be sensitive to the faith and feelings of others in their own public expressions of faith.

1. The corporate entities and individual members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are obliged by the religious faith and order they profess to participate in public life and become involved in the realm of politics.
2. Pastors and officials of the church, as well as lay members, have the right and responsibility to stand for and hold public office when they feel called to do so.
3. The "free exercise of religion" must be understood to include and protect the right to practice faith in public and private as well as the right to believe; and thus to include participation in public affairs by the individuals and church bodies for which such participation is an element of faith.
4. As part of the church's participation in public life, governing bodies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at every level should speak out on public and political issues, taking care to articulate the moral and ethical implications of public policies and practices.
5. We recognize that speaking out on issues will sometimes constitute implicit support or opposition to particular candidates or parties, where policy and platform differences are clearly drawn. Since such differences are the vital core of the political process, church participation should not be curtailed on that account; but we believe that it is generally unwise and imprudent for the church explicitly to support or oppose specific candidates, except in unusual circumstances.
6. We reject and oppose any attempts on the part of the church to exercise political authority or to use the political process to achieve governmental sponsorship of worship or religious practice.
7. We oppose attempts by government to limit or deny religious participation in public life by statute or regulation, including Internal Revenue Service regulations on the amount or percentage of money used to influence legislation, and prohibition of church intervention in political campaigns. We will join with others, as occasion permits, to seek repeal of such regulations and statutes, or a definitive ruling by the Supreme Court on their constitutionality.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) offers certain nonprofit and other organizations reduced standard mail bulk rates. This is an important benefit for churces and governing bodies. For information, go to the USPS site. In the search box, enter -- Special Rates for Nonprofit Mailers. The publication can be printed.

Note: If your church body is at the stage it needs to prove its federal tax exempt status, call Senior Legal Assistant Brenda Smithers at (888) 728-7228 x5377. She can provide you with the tax exempt letter for your governing body.