Although it is illegal for clergy at a house of worship to come out for or against one political candidate over another, 28 percent of those who have attended black Protestant churches in the last seven months say their pastor has expressed support for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.
The same study shows that some 20 percent of black Protestant church pastors have come out against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Overall, the survey reveals some nine percent of those who have attended religious services recently have heard clergy speak out in favor of a candidate and 11 percent have had clergy speak out against someone running for office.
The Atlantic points out that the reason why such a large number of clergy apparently defy the law in such a brazen way is that a violation is not punishable by jail time.
The worst possible result for someone breaking the law would be that the house of worship would lose its status as a tax exempt organization. However, the IRS rarely exercises its right to audit and fine congregations if they are suspected of violating the law due to a lack of manpower and budget for carrying out the task.
The poll also explored the different political topics that clergy were speaking about at houses of worship, with religious liberty and homosexuality topping the list.
The Pew survey was taken from June 7 until July 5 and is based on 4,602 respondents, including 2,258 who said they had attended religious services at least once or twice in the previous few months.
The margin of sampling error among recent churchgoers is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
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