[Vision2020] Pastors Plan to Defy IRS on Politics Ban

[Tom Hansen]

>From Friday's (September 26, 2008) edition of the Spokesman Review -

"Members of the Interfaith Alliance – which includes the nation's top 
Episcopal bishop – have signed a pledge to refrain from electioneering in 
their houses of worship.

'Political activity and political expressions are very important, but 
partisan politics are … a death knell to the prophetic freedom that any 
religious organization must protect,' said the Rev. Ed Bacon, rector of 
All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., who signed the pledge."

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Pastors plan to defy IRS on politics ban 
Alliance members across country to give sermons

Setting the stage for a collision of religion and politics, Christian 
ministers from 22 states will use their pulpits Sunday to deliver 
political sermons or endorse presidential candidates – defying a federal 
ban on campaigning by nonprofit groups.

The pastors' advocacy could violate the Internal Revenue Service's rules 
against political speech with the purpose of triggering IRS investigations.

That would allow their patron, the conservative legal group Alliance 
Defense Fund, to challenge the IRS' rules, a risky strategy that one 
defense fund attorney acknowledges could cost the churches their tax-
exempt status. Congress made it illegal in 1954 for tax-exempt groups to 
support or oppose political candidates publicly.
 
"I'm going to talk about the un-biblical stands that Barack Obama takes. 
Nobody who follows the Bible can vote for him," said the Rev. Wiley S. 
Drake of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, Calif. "We may not 
be politically correct, but we are going to be biblically correct. We are 
going to vote for those who follow the Bible."

Drake was the target of a recent IRS investigation into his endorsement 
last year of former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential 
candidate Mike Huckabee. In the end, Drake was cleared.

Drake and 32 other pastors who have signed on to the "pulpit initiative" 
have sparked loud condemnations by fellow clergy and advocates of the 
separation of church and state.

These critics, such as Americans United for Separation of Church and 
State, argue that Sunday's sermons at churches in Oregon, Texas, New 
Mexico, Pennsylvania and other states will violate federal tax law by 
politicizing the pulpit. That, they believe, will undercut the 
independence churches have long enjoyed to speak out about moral and 
ethical issues in American life, including women's suffrage, child labor 
and civil rights.

"The integrity of the religious community is at stake when religion and 
politics become entangled," said the Rev. Eric Williams of the North 
Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus, Ohio.

Williams was recruited for the defense fund but instead joined with 54 
other Christian and Jewish clergy members to file a complaint against the 
initiative with the IRS.

The religious leaders asked the agency to stop the Arizona-based defense 
fund from recruiting churches and to investigate whether its efforts may 
jeopardize its own tax-exempt status.

Representing the religious leaders are three Washington attorneys, all 
former IRS officials, who also filed a complaint accusing defense fund 
attorneys of violating IRS rules by helping the churches break federal law.

Meanwhile, a separate group of 180 ministers, rabbis and imams also has 
sought to counter the "pulpit initiative."

Members of the Interfaith Alliance – which includes the nation's top 
Episcopal bishop – have signed a pledge to refrain from electioneering in 
their houses of worship.

"Political activity and political expressions are very important, but 
partisan politics are … a death knell to the prophetic freedom that any 
religious organization must protect," said the Rev. Ed Bacon, rector of 
All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., who signed the pledge.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college 
students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."

- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)


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