Signs of Christianist Desperation

by tristero

So it looks like a group of rightwing nuts are going to challenge the IRS over the tax status of churches that endorse specific candidates:

The Alliance Defense Fund of Scottsdale, Ariz., is recruiting ministers to make political sermons Sept. 28, a few weeks before the presidential election, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The group hopes to challenge the constitutionality of the tax law, the report said….

“The government should not be telling the church what it should or should not be saying,” [the Rev. Steve] Riggle said. “As a pastor, a private citizen, I can speak for myself. The IRS cannot quench my voice.”

But this is a lie because the reverend knows very well that the IRS is not banning him from endorsing a candidate. He is quite free to do so. Likewise, his church is also free to endorse whoever they want to.

All they need to do – and it’s no big deal, really, unless the reverend and his church worship filthy mammon above all – is to forgo tax-exempt status:

Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the tax exemption granted churches “comes with conditions.”

“So if any pastor out there feels he is gagged or can’t speak on partisan politics … forgo the tax exemption and say what you want,” said Boston.

Federal law prohibits churches from endorsing political candidates, but they are permitted to advocate positions on issues.

And the head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the REVEREND Barry Lynn goes on:

Said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, “This is a truly deplorable scheme. Federal tax law rightly requires churches and other tax-exempt groups to use their resources for religious and charitable purposes, not partisan politics. When the faithful put their hard-earned dollars in the collection plate, they don’t expect it to wind up pushing some politician’s campaign.

“The Religious Right leaders who lust for political power in America will apparently stop at nothing, not even the sacred character of the church,” Lynn continued. “The vast majority of clergy do not seek to turn their incense-filled sanctuaries into smoke-filled political backrooms.

“I think very few clergy will yield to the Alliance Defense Fund’s worldly temptation,” Lynn concluded. “And those who do will find their churches’ tax exemptions in jeopardy. I assume the ADF will provide a list of congregations unwise enough to join this move, and we’ll be ready to report those churches to the IRS.”

Lynn noted that clergy know they are free to speak out on religious, moral and political issues. But they cannot use tax-exempt resources to support or oppose candidates for public office, which includes statements from the pulpit by church officials and other indications of campaign intervention.

In May of 2000, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously held that the IRS properly revoked the tax exemption of the Church at Pierce Creek, a congregation near Binghamton, N.Y., that bought newspaper ads in 1992 opposing presidential candidate Bill Clinton. (Americans United filed a complaint with the IRS about this clear violation of tax law.)

The court ruled in Branch Ministries v. Rossotti that “the revocation of the Church’s tax-exempt status neither violated the Constitution nor exceeded the IRS’s statutory authority.” (The three judges were Reagan appointees, and the opinion was written by James Buckley, a scion of the ultra-conservative Buckley family and brother of William F. Buckley.)

The Alliance Defense Fund, which is organizing this nonsense, has among its founders radical christianists Bill Bright, James Dobson, D. James Kennedy, and Don Wildmon. Here’s the Wikipedia entry for ADF. And
here is a good short report of one of their more notorious actions, the infamous press release entitled “Declaration of Independence Banned from Classroom” (scroll down). Of course, that was a lie.

Coincidence they’re from the same state as St. John McCain? Maybe, but it is an indication of how desperate christianists are becoming that they would solicit churches to lose their tax exemptions. For many christianist “churches,” that is the holiest of sacraments.* And there is no better illustration than this that there is nothing religious about the so-called “religious” right. This is first and foremost a political movement that has co-opted religious symbols and tropes merely for secular gain.

Yes, I’m aware that if this gets to the current Supreme Court, they very well could rule in ADF’s favor. But I sincerely doubt that, first, it would ever get that far and second, that they would overturn this exemption rule. For one thing, Scalia, Thomas and Alito have little interest in further lining the over-moneyed pockets of the legions of catholic-hating Pastor Hagees out there. I could be mistaken, however, especially if one of the churches who takes up ADF’s call is Catholic. It takes a lot of money to pursue such a stupid challenge up to the Supremes so it’s not out of the question that Scalia, Alito, and Thomas signaled ADF that the “right case” would have a chance.

Needless to say, if churches and pastors can endorse candidates while retaining their tax-exempt status, it will immediately establish an American theocracy. In which case, I’ll see you at the queue for the stake.

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*I am speaking quite specifically here about those groups whose sole, or main, reason for being is to serve as organizing center for the ambitions of theocrats. That won’t stop certain readers from interpreting this as a malicious smear on all religious belief. As mentioned numerous times, my own public record of respect and tolerance for religious practice is extensive and my personal beliefs, or lack of them, are as private as my contempt for christianism is not. It simply is impossible to infer what I believe, or don’t, from my public comments.