John Hartford was not necessarily bowing to political correctness - the lyric in question came from a song call Back Up on the Hill (I think), off the Aereoplane album, put out in the heart of the hippy era, and popular among hippies. His lyric fits in better with his song than the older one preferred by Midchuck.

By the way, I have more often seen/heard "a preacher won't steal", which actually makes a little more sense, so I'm not convinced that that's a case of political correctness either.