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Loading ...Churches that staged protest wait for IRS response
04.24.2009 4:58pm EDT
(Milwaukee) Nearly seven months after defying a prohibition on endorsing candidates from the pulpit, 33 churches across the country are still waiting to learn whether the Internal Revenue Service will take action against them.
The goal of “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” was to trigger a legal fight and ultimately overturn regulations that prevent places of worship from supporting or opposing candidates for office. But a conservative legal group that organized the effort says the IRS has yet to notify the churches of any investigation.Legal experts suggest a number of possibilities: The IRS has nothing to gain from a costly and mainly symbolic battle; it has limited resources; or it could still be deciding how to respond.
On Sept. 28, participating pastors urged worshippers to vote according to conservative views on abortion and gay marriage. Several endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Under the IRS code, places of worship can distribute voter guides, run nonpartisan voter-registration drives and hold forums on issues, among other things. But they cannot endorse a candidate, nor can their political activity be biased for or against a candidate.
Churches that violate the rule can lose their tax-exempt status.
The protest was organized by the Phoenix-based Alliance Defense Fund and involved pastors in 22 states.
“The wheels of bureaucracy move slowly,” said Erik Stanley, the group’s senior legal counsel. “We’re prepared if they do come after these churches, and we’re also prepared if they do not.”
IRS spokesman Christopher Miller declined to comment, and the agency would not confirm or deny whether it is conducting an investigation. At the time of the protest, the IRS said it would “monitor the situation and take action as appropriate.”
ADF officials view the regulation as a violation of the pastors’ right to free speech. Some legal scholars counter that the government has every right to treat political and nonpolitical speech differently.
A number of the pastors said they hoped the IRS would respond immediately so the legal challenge could get under way.
Luke Emrich, pastor at New Life Church in West Bend, Wis., had urged about 100 congregants to support an anti-abortion platform by voting for McCain. He said he was disappointed the IRS had not responded.
“It would have been nice to have a direct conversation with the IRS,” he said. “I thought they would at least contact us, talk to us about the issues.”
Historically, the IRS has been shy to investigate political activity in churches. It has stepped up oversight in recent years after receiving a flurry of complaints from the 2004 campaign. The IRS reported issuing written advisories against 42 churches for improper politically activity that year.
It’s possible the IRS ignored the recent protest because it does not have an incentive to pursue the issue, said Robert Tuttle, a professor of law and religion at George Washington University.
“It would be expensive for them to fight, and it would give people all sorts of reasons to say the IRS is evil and irreligious,” Tuttle said. “It’s not like they’re going to recoup a lot of money. Their attitude is probably ‘why bother?’”
Or, it could be too early to say. When similar violations occurred during previous presidential elections, the IRS took two or three years to introduce litigation to strip a church of its tax-exempt status, said John Witte Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.
“Even so, if the IRS wanted to pounce on this, I think it would have by now,” Witte said. Perhaps it did not consider an investigation a wise use of resources, he speculated, or maybe the agency is occupied with more pressing cases.
Stanley, the ADF’s attorney, said the organization will continue its protests as long as necessary, holding annual Pulpit Freedom Sundays every year ahead of federal, state or local elections. If the IRS does not take action against future protests, he said, pastors will learn the regulation can be safely ignored.
Polls suggest the campaign does not have wide support. An August survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that two-thirds of adults oppose political endorsements from churches and other places of worship. Another 52 percent wanted religious institutions out of politics altogether.
But those statistics did not dissuade Pastor Paul Blair, who took part in the initiative at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla. He said the main point of the protest was to make a stand to protect religious freedom.
“I don’t let the federal government dictate to me what I can and cannot preach,” he said. “I answer to a higher power than the federal government.”
What ignoramuses these right-wing bible thumpers are! This has nothing to do with rights or freedom of religion or speech. Of course they are completely free to say and teach what they want. But they aren’t free to expect the American public to subsidize their speech by granting them tax exempt status to spread their teachings. By all means, teach and preach as you please. But pay your taxes too, like everyone else. Tax exemption is a privilege, not a right, and the government is perfectly free to grant such a privilege on its own terms.
The tax exemptions should be immediately revoked, and some people need to go to jail. They broadcast their intention to break the law, and then broke it, and then bragged about it. It couldn’t be clearer what should happen.
Agreed with all sentiments/ideas expressed above.
However, should these ‘churches’ suffer notable repercussions from the Federal government, they *will* cry persecution.
Surely we can think of something that won’t give *those* religious masochists any (more) press ?
The alliance defense fund – the new lawyer based version of the KKK.
The only thing they have to offer is a warped view of christian love, which is actually hatred, this time of the gays. They are in some ways an equivalent of the Mutwa in Saudi Arabia, which beat women for showing an ankle, arrest gays and have a religious court sentence them to death,etc. This is not what America is about. And you can bet the ADF is are full of the same people, or their descendants who said segregation forever.
Churches are not the conscience of the nation, unless you believe the Holy Roman empire was the conscience of Europe. The catholic church, combined with corrupt kins and dictators for a thousand years. They murdered upwards of 50 million Muslims during their crusades “in the name of God”. No wonder those people are so quick to hate us.
Awww… All they want is to have their cake and eat it too. They want extra benefits but lesser responsibility. In exchange, they want gays pay taxes but not have equal rights.
But hey, if they want their cake and eat it too, then so should we. If they believe they’re entitled to do whatever they want, then so can other nonprofit organizations, like LGBT ones, right?
It seems that Christianity is more and more like the Muslim faith. The leaders of both faiths are trying to hijack the non-religious governments, to make every body to believe in their narrow self serving religious dogmas. Remember Kansas: Evolution is evil, Creation Good? The problem is people don’t want to wear burkas, nor do they want to listen to a bunch of old religious farts tell them how to think or what to do.
It seems the more the religious right talks, the more I believe that they would have us using leaches to cure everything, and substitute the court of law with dunking people in water to see if they are righteous or not. We tried religious thought control more then once with: Prohibition, the Puritans colony, and Salem Witch hunts. Each time it did not work. It seems we forget, and don’t recognize it when it’s right in front of us. The thing that bugs me is do we have to keep repeating history? The problem here is that these so call churches will use the IRS just like the Taliban has used Pakistani for their cause, which will hurt everybody in the end.
If I was in one of these churches, I would expect to hear them say “The Devil does not own a red suit, but comes riding in a white suit, on a white horse, claiming to save everyone.” Humm? Maybe the shoe is on the wrong foot.
Let them endorse political candidates but take their tax exempt status away!
These silly people want a fight. I think the orginal law was to keep politicians from buying churches/votes.
Just like many of these people to not understand separation of church and state because they are ignorant of the evils caused by the state sanctioned churchs in Europe. The founding fathers knew their history better.
Tom in Long Beach
IMO, churches should have every right to participate in politics, at least to the extent of preserving their freedom of speech.
Then again I don’t think there is a single church that should not be taxed just like any other business – income tax, property tax and whatever other taxes may affect other establishments in their area.
In fact I would encourage churches to add a sales tax on all tithe given.
Let the churches be equal in every way rather than superior in their tax liability and inferior in their freedom of speech.
Neil
SOLVE THE BUDGET CRISIS !!!!!! TAX THE CHURCH.BILLIONS AND BILLION$ OF BUCKS WAITING TO BE COLLECTED-THEY SHOULD PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE LIKE WE DO !!
If these churches are not prosecuted by the IRS and their tax exempt status not stripped away – the legal system has done this country a great disservice.
If churches wish to disobey the policies under which they experience privilege, they should prepare to suffer the consequences.
God does not place anyone above the law.
Pastor Paul Blair, of the Fairview Baptist Church in Oklahoma states that he answers to a higher power than the Federal Government.
That ‘higher power’ is HATE, something that dominates and controls many of our so-called religious factions.
Their tax exempt status should have been immediately and permanently revoked! Are the laws of this country merely “suggested guidelines”? or are they F*cking LAWS! If the government does not have the BACKBONE to enforce its own laws, how can they expect to be taken seriously? Not responding will only encourage these IDIOTS! Conservative Christians will be the downfall of this country if we let them get away with whatever they want.
Pastor Paul Blair said:
“I don’t let the federal government dictate to me what I can and cannot preach,” he said. “I answer to a higher power than the federal government.”
Then he and the rest of the loud mouth bigots can and should pay their taxes as the rest of us do. And when the IRS strips just one of them of their tax-free status; the and only then will they stop interfering in the fight for marriage equality.
NOt only should these site be require to pay the full amount of tax require of other organization who promote a political candidate, but any church or religous organization who ventures into the political arena by supporting or opposing any type of legislation should the fully taxed as well. There is a such thing as seperation of church and state which has been ignorred for way too long.