Kansas City InfoZine - Churches Under Scrutiny For Politicking
September 18, 2006
By Josh
Swartzlander
Churches have begun to turn up the heat in several states with close congressional and gubernatorial elections, encouraging their congregations to hit the polls come November.
Watchdog groups and the Internal Revenue Service are taking notice, hoping to discourage illegal politicking by tax exempt religious organizations.
Meanwhile, some religious groups are calling for sweeping legislative reform, supporting a House bill that would allow tax exempt religious groups to endorse or oppose political candidates.
"We're muzzling pastors," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, which advocates religious freedom. "They should be able to speak their minds."
Under federal law, tax exempt religious and charitable groups cannot participate in political campaigns. But, earlier this year, the IRS released a study from the 2004 election showing that nearly three-quarters of audited religious and charitable groups participated in prohibited political activity.
Following the results of the study, the IRS announced it would continue to monitor tax exempt groups to make sure they don't participate in political campaigns leading to November's midterm elections.
Watchdog group Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced Monday it was sending letters to more than 117,000 houses of worship, representing multiple religions and denominations, in 11 states with close elections, warning that the religious pulpit should not be used to espouse support for any political candidate.
Americans United Executive Director Barry Lynn said he was particularly concerned about an effort by James Dobson's conservative evangelical group, Focus on the Family, to conduct voter registration drives in eight states, each the site of a contested congressional or gubernatorial race.
"This is nothing less than an old-fashioned political machine," Lynn said. "It should be shut down."
Tom Minnery, senior vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family, called Lynn a "playground bully," adding that Focus on the Family knows and follows the law.
"We're engaged in nonpartisan voter registration efforts," he said.
But Focus on the Family and other religious groups would like churches to be able to endorse or oppose political candidates while maintaining tax exempt status.
"We think that pastors, rabbis, priests and others can speak out on any issue from the pulpit at any time," said Jim Backlin, vice-president for legislative affairs for the Christian Coalition.
The Coalition, Focus on the Family and the American Center for Law and Justice support House legislation introduced by Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., that would permit churches to endorse or oppose candidates. Even Backlin, however, acknowledged it was unlikely the bill would reach a vote on the floor of Congress this year.
Other religious organizations strongly oppose changing the federal law.
"Churches shouldn't be campaign headquarters," said Bob Edgar, general secretary for the National Council of Churches and author of the new book, "Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right."
"We think that the current law works," Edgar added. "Churches can host candidates. They can host forums. What the bill would do would allow for more proselytizing and more aggressive actions from churches."
It's not just conservative Christian churches that are under the microscope for supporting politicians.
A liberal Episcopalian church in California was thrust into the spotlight at the end of last year after the IRS began an investigation into a sermon that was extremely critical of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq.
However, Edgar said, conservative Christian churches for the last 40 years have led more organized campaigns to influence followers.
Changing federal law to allow churches to endorse candidates would result in "the religious right invading pulpits even more than they already do," he said.