[Vision2020] 33 Pastors Flout Tax Law With Political Sermons

[Art Deco]

Let's just stop making so-called nonprofits tax exempt.

W.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Saundra Lund 
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 11:00 AM
  Subject: [Vision2020] 33 Pastors Flout Tax Law With Political Sermons


  33 Pastors Flout Tax Law With Political Sermons
  By Peter Slevin
  Washington Post Staff Writer 
  Monday, September 29, 2008; Page A02 

  CROWN POINT, Ind., Sept. 28 -- Defying a federal law that prohibits U.S.
  clergy from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit, an evangelical
  Christian minister told his congregation Sunday that voting for Sen. Barack
  Obama would be evidence of "severe moral schizophrenia."

  The Rev. Ron Johnson Jr. told worshipers that the Democratic presidential
  nominee's positions on abortion and gay partnerships exist "in direct
  opposition to God's truth as He has revealed it in the Scriptures." Johnson
  showed slides contrasting the candidates' views but stopped short of
  endorsing Obama's Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain. 

  Johnson and 32 other pastors across the country set out Sunday to break the
  rules, hoping to generate a legal battle that will prompt federal courts to
  throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses
  of worship. 

  The ministers contend they have a constitutional right to advise their
  worshipers how to vote. As Johnson put it during a break between sermons,
  "The point that the IRS says you can't do it, I'm saying you're wrong." 

  The campaign, organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a socially
  conservative legal consortium based in Arizona, has gotten the attention of
  the Internal Revenue Service. The agency, alerted by opponents, pledged to
  "monitor the situation and take action as appropriate." 

  Each campaign season brings allegations that a member of the clergy has
  crossed a line set out in a 1954 amendment to the tax code that says
  nonprofit, tax-exempt entities may not "participate in, or intervene in . .
  . any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office." 

  This time, the church action is concerted. Yet while the ministers say the
  rules stifle religious expression, their opponents contend that the tax laws
  are essential to protect the separation of church and state. They say
  political speech should not be supported by a tax break for the churches or
  the worshipers who are contributing to a political cause.

  <snip>
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092802
  365.html
  OR
  http://tinyurl.com/4v2k79













  Saundra
  Moscow, ID

  The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
  nothing.
  ~ Edmund Burke



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