LA Times, September 21, 2006
The leaders of a Pasadena church battling the IRS over a sermon critical of the Bush administration delivered before the 2004 presidential election voted unanimously today to resist an order to turn over documents related to the case, the congregation's senior warden told The Associated Press.
"We're going to put it in their court and in a court of law so that we can get anadjudication to some very fundamental issues here that we see as an intolerable infringement of rights," said Bob Long, senior warden of All Saints Church.
The 3,500-member Episcopal congregation, which could lose its tax exempt status over the dispute, scheduled a news conference for 2:30 p.m. to formally announce the unanimous vote of its vestry.
The action sets up a high-profile confrontation between the church and the IRS, which now must decide whether to ask for a hearing before a judge. The judge would then rule on the validity of the agency's demands.
Terry Lemons, a spokesman for the IRS, did not immediately return a call for comment. IRS officials have said they cannot comment on specific cases.
According to the IRS, the only church ever to be stripped of its tax-exempt status for partisan politicking was the Church at Pierce Creek near Binghamton, N.Y., which was penalized in 1995 after running full-page ads against President Clinton in USA Today and The Washington Times in 1992 during election season.
Under federal tax law, church officials can legally discuss politics, but to retain tax-exempt status they cannot endorse candidates or parties. Most who do so receive a warning.
The IRS, however, has promised tougher enforcement of the law during this year's mid-term elections and in the 2008 election cycle.
The agency completed investigations of 90 tax-exempt churches and charities in 2004 and found wrongdoing in 70 percent of the cases. Four -- none of them churches -- lost their tax-exempt status. In 2005, the agency began audits of 70 churches and charities and has 40 cases pending so far this year.
The dispute with All Saints centers on a sermon titled "If Jesus Debated Senator Kerry and President Bush" that was delivered by guest pastor Rev. George Regas just two days before the 2004 election. Though he did not endorse either President Bush or Sen. John Kerry, he said Jesus would condemn the Iraq war and Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive war.
"I believe Jesus would say to Bush and Kerry: 'War is itself the most extreme form of terrorism. President Bush, you have not made dramatically clear what have been the human consequences of the war in Iraq,"' Regas said, according to a transcript.
The IRS reprimanded the church in June 2005 and asked that it promise to be more careful. Church officials refused.
Last week, the IRS demanded documents and an interview with the rector by the end of the month.
Today, the church's 26-member vestry voted unanimously to resist those demands, Long said.
Didn't 2nd Baptist of Houston have questions raised about it's politicking several years ago? I guess that's okay since the politics is on the "right" side.
Posted by: SallyT | September 22, 2006 at 08:08 AM