According to the September 26 posting of World Net Daily, the Alliance Defense Fund is now down to only 33 pastors in 22 states who are willing to take on the IRS.

In what is being dubbed as "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," on September 28 these pastors plan on endorsing a presidential candidate from the pulpit in violation of IRS regulations for churches, putting their tax-exempt status at risk.

One of the 33 is Robert E. Smith, the black pastor of the Evangelical Outreach Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Pastor Smith planned to warn his flock against voting for Obama; however, he missed his flight. He preached a prototype of his sermon at the Community Bible Fellowship Church in Williamstown, NJ on September 27, in which he said, among other things, that drugs and gangs weren't the biggest killer of blacks, but rather abortion. He went on to point out that Obama was clearly pro-death in that he was not only for federal funding of abortion but also for partial birth abortion.

Wiley Drake, Pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, California who recently won his tax case against the IRS when they challenged his tax-exemption for endorsing Mike Huckabee on church stationary, has thrown down the gauntlet again by joining the 33 pastors who are challenging the IRS on September 28. He has announced his sermon title as: Jesus, Politics and The Church.

Over half of Americans believe churches that publicly endorse candidates for public office should lose their tax exemption, a recent study shows. According to LifeWay Research, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, 38 percent of all surveyed Americans said they strongly agree with that statement and 14 percent said they somewhat agree. Meanwhile, 25 percent strongly disagree with churches losing their tax-exempt status and 17 percent somewhat disagree. (Christian Post, Thurs., Sep. 25 2008)