Columbus Dispatch - Clash Likely at Ohio Forum on Role of Faith in Politics

September 29, 2006
by Dennis M . Mahoney
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Opinions will be as divergent as left versus right when members of a panel air their views next weekend on what role religion should play in politics.

The forum will run from 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Riffe Center, 77 S. High St., and will include local and national figures in the debate over religious involvement in political campaigns.

The panel will include:

Phil Burress, president of the Cincinnati-based Citizens for Community Values.

The Rev. Russell Johnson, senior pastor of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster and founder of the conservative Ohio Restoration Project.

The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of the liberal Americans United for the Separation of Church and State in Washington.

Marcus Owens, a former Internal Revenue Service official and Washington attorney, who is involved in a complaint lodged to the IRS against Johnson and the Rev. Rod Parsley over their political activities.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice in Washington and radioshow host.

The Rev. Eric Williams, North Congregational Church senior pastor and spokesman for the clergy members who filed the Johnson-Parsley complaint.

Sekulow is blunt in his view of clergy people speaking out for candidates. IRS regulations prevent tax-exempt entities, such as churches, from campaigning for or against candidates.

"I think it is no business of government to come in and tell a pastor what to say or what not to say on any subject," he said.

Sekulow added, "If the members of a church dont like the position hes advocating or think hes getting, to their taste, too political, theres a way they can handle that. They can remove the pastor."

But Lynn said partisan involvement in politics destroys a churchs ability to be an independent observer of elections.

"It can literally tear apart congregations. And for what purpose?" he said.

"Martin Luther King Jr. managed to get through the entire civil-rights movement, succeed in an extraordinary fashion in shaping the moral culture of the country, and never once endorsed a candidate from the pulpit.

"Now if he can do it, I think the local pastor can do the same thing."

Besides his local involvement, Owens is representing All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif. It is under IRS investigation because of a former rectors sermon just before the 2004 presidential election that denounced the Iraqi war.

He said the suggestion to take away tax-exempt status from religious bodies in favor of a free hand in politics would be a bad idea. Most use charitable contributions to fund worthwhile endeavors such as medical care, education and social services, Owens noted.

The public has a right to know who is financing political campaigns, he said. Churches involvement in partisan campaigns would demand that they disclose their contributors, something that he thinks would hurt charitable causes.

"I think the better line to police is churches can discuss issues until the cows come home," Owens said.

"But when it comes to endorsing or opposing, and in particular using church assets, on behalf of a candidate or against a candidate, thats a line that should not be crossed by a church or any other charity."

Burress nonprofit organization was a key promoter of a 2004 state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage that voters approved.

He favors removing the restriction on partisanship by religious bodies, which was not part of IRS regulations prior to 1954. Still, he said, churches have wide latitude to get involved in elections.

"Its not an issue for the church. It really isnt. Its not an issue with us," Burress said. "We know the regs, we study them. We know what were allowed to do and what were not allowed to do, and we work within the system."

He said religious bodies will continue to affect politics in Ohio and the nation.

"The people of faith, were the sleeping giants," Burress said. "And they did wake up in 2004, and I have not seen them go back to sleep."

The forum, to be moderated by political scientist John Green of the University of Akron, is sponsored by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the American Center for Law and Justice.