WP: In Election Season, IRS Sits in Judgment (on churches)

[DeepModem Mom]

In Election Season, IRS Sits in Judgment
Clergy Withhold Endorsements While Touting Free Speech From Pulpit

By Bill Broadway
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 9, 2004; Page B09

This year's presidential campaign has proved to be one infused with religion, with President Bush's reelection bid buoyed by evangelical Protestants and Democratic challenger John F. Kerry under fire by some of his fellow Roman Catholics for his stance on abortion rights.

But the issue of religion and politics reaches beyond the candidates. Some forms of political involvement can endanger a church's tax-exempt status, and religious leaders report that they and their congregations increasingly are being scrutinized for any action that might violate that rule, including what is said in sermons.

"It's a concern thrust upon us by the administration and by polarized political perspectives," said the Rev. Graylan S. Hagler, senior pastor of Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Northeast Washington. "We have become polarized as a country, with the right wing scrutinizing the liberals and progressives and the liberals scrutinizing the conservatives. And each is willing to call 'foul.' "

Since March, when a church in Austin allowed the Republican Party to hold a fundraiser in its sanctuary, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has filed complaints with the Internal Revenue Service against seven houses of worship, charging them with failing to observe the limits on political activity by a tax-exempt, nonprofit religious organization. Two of those complaints involved clergy endorsing candidates from the pulpit, with one minister backing Kerry and the other supporting Bush....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18746-2004Oct8.html

[saigon68]

1. They better take a look at Bishop Burke

Of St. Louis ----A/K/A whack job Burke.