The IRS scandal is an official free-for-all. I’m hard-pressed to find any right wing group that isn’t wailing about its persecution. Here’s just one example of the religious right’s horning in on the action:
Friends of the family,
This past week, revelations about the IRS targeting conservativegroups seemed to keep coming. Just yesterday, we learned that the Internal Revenue Service acting commissioner Steven Miller has submitted his resignation for his agency’s “inexcusable” targeting of conservative groups who had applied for tax-exempt status. According to Fox News, the IRS targeting went broader than originally reported. Apparently, the IRS’ additional scrutiny “went beyond targeting ‘Tea Party’ and ‘patriot’ groups to include those focused on government spending, the Constitution and several other broad areas.” One of these ‘other areas’ now appears to be churches and faith-based organizations.
In the Christian community, several established organizations were apparently targeted, including Franklin Graham, whose two North Carolina charities came under sudden scrutiny after he and his father, Rev. Billy Graham, published pro-marriage and pro-family election ads. In a letter to President Obama, the Grahams explain that an IRS agent visited both groups in October to conduct a surprise tax “review.” National Organization for Marriage was another target, as their confidential documents were released to the Human Rights Campaign–whose then-president was a chairman for Obama’s re-election campaign.
Pro-Life non-profit groups are reporting being stonewalled by IRS agents as well. Some were told that they would not qualify as an educational 501(c)3 organization unless they advocated for abortion as well, while others had their applications held up until they promised not to protest outside of abortion clinics! Let me be clear that MFI is an educational and advocacy non-profit that, as you know, is grounded in Judeo-Christian morality. We are exactly the type of organization that the IRS now appears to have been targeting.
What we must do now, as men and women committed to bringing salt and light into the public square, is refuse to be intimidated into silence, even when the sword of the state is used against us. Unfortunately, this sort of hostility and interference from the IRS towards faith-based groups is not new. The IRS has been targeting churches since the passage of the Johnson Amendment in 1954, which amended section 501(c)(3) of the tax code and has since been applied to intimidate churches and pastors across the country into silence on the moral qualifications of candidates and the positions they hold. There is no difference between what the IRS has been caught doing with conservative groups and what the IRS has done to churches for the last 59 years. Both are intimidation. Imagine the impact of a system of intimidation targeting a particular group left unchecked for over half a century. That is exactly what has happened with America’s churches. Free speech is a fragile thing and it needs breathing space to exist. The power of government can all too easily squelch dissent. People will not speak at all if there is uncertainty over whether the power of government will come down on them if they say something that might violate the law. This is what we are seeing first hand with the revelations of the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups. And this has been the problem with the Johnson Amendment and the IRS’ vague regulations enforcing it. The law does not give any certainty over what is allowed and what is permitted from the pulpits of America’s churches. So pastors, concerned that they might say something that would trigger the enforcement power of the IRS (a very powerful government agency), stay silent. America’s churches have suffered for too long under the intimidation of the IRS. The best way to shine the light on that intimidation is to stand in the face of it.
That’s why we ask you to encourage your pastor to participate in June 9th’s Pulpit FreedomSunday. And that’s why we hope that if you are a pastor, you will go today to sign up to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday. It’s time for the IRS to stop using its power to squelch free speech and freedom of religion for America’s churches.
For our families,
groups seemed to keep coming. Just yesterday, we learned that the Internal Revenue Service acting commissioner Steven Miller has submitted his resignation for his agency’s “inexcusable” targeting of conservative groups who had applied for tax-exempt status. According to Fox News, the IRS targeting went broader than originally reported. Apparently, the IRS’ additional scrutiny “went beyond targeting ‘Tea Party’ and ‘patriot’ groups to include those focused on government spending, the Constitution and several other broad areas.” One of these ‘other areas’ now appears to be churches and faith-based organizations.
Unfortunately, this sort of hostility and interference from the IRS towards faith-based groups is not new. The IRS has been targeting churches since the passage of the Johnson Amendment in 1954, which amended section 501(c)(3) of the tax code and has since been applied to intimidate churches and pastors across the country into silence on the moral qualifications of candidates and the positions they hold. There is no difference between what the IRS has been caught doing with conservative groups and what the IRS has done to churches for the last 59 years. Both are intimidation. Imagine the impact of a system of intimidation targeting a particular group left unchecked for over half a century. That is exactly what has happened with America’s churches.
Free speech is a fragile thing and it needs breathing space to exist. The power of government can all too easily squelch dissent. People will not speak at all if there is uncertainty over whether the power of government will come down on them if they say something that might violate the law. This is what we are seeing first hand with the revelations of the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups. And this has been the problem with the Johnson Amendment and the IRS’ vague regulations enforcing it. The law does not give any certainty over what is allowed and what is permitted from the pulpits of America’s churches. So pastors, concerned that they might say something that would trigger the enforcement power of the IRS (a very powerful government agency), stay silent. America’s churches have suffered for too long under the intimidation of the IRS. The best way to shine the light on that intimidation is to stand in the face of it.
