Church and State

Churches & Politics Don't Mix
genre: Hip-Gnosis & Polispeak & Six Degrees of Speculation
The IRS has issued a warning to churches that they risk their tax exempt status if they fail to observe the requirement that they not engage in political activities. The 2004 presidential election marked a turning point in churches approaching the line of demarcation as the Catholic Church told its members that they should examine their beliefs before voting for politicians who did not uphold the principles of the Church, especially with regard to supporting the legality of abortions as determined in Roe v. Wade.

Thought Theater recently reported on efforts by the Catholic Church in Colorado to gather petition signatures for a ballot initiative to ban same sex marriage here. To read the full article on the IRS warning, the LA Times has the article here.

The Internal Revenue Service is warning churches and nonprofits that improper campaigning in the upcoming political season could endanger their tax-exempt status.

The agency also launched a program to expedite investigations into claims of improper campaigning, prompting an advocacy group to charge this month that the program could restrict the free speech of nonprofit groups and churches.

Under the program, the IRS will no longer wait for an annual tax return to be filed or the tax year to end before investigating allegations of wrongful campaigning. A three-member committee will make an initial review of complaints and then vote on whether to pursue the investigation in detail.

"While the vast majority of charities and churches do not engage in politicking, an increasing number did take part in prohibited activities in the 2004 election cycle," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a statement. "The rule against political campaign intervention by charities and churches is long established. We are stepping up our efforts to enforce it."

The code bans nonprofits from "participating or intervening" for "any candidate for public office." That includes endorsements, donations and fundraising. But nonprofits are allowed to speak out on issues of public interest as long as "a substantial part of the organization's activities is not intended to influence legislation."

Many tax exempt organizations have argued that the guidelines are quite vague which makes it difficult for organizations to determine the limitations thereby forcing undue caution. In my opinion, the added caution the warnings may create would provide a much needed deterrent to the ever expanding efforts of tax exempt organizations to skirt the regulations and influence the voting decisions of their memberships.

The tenor of the Republican Party in the last decade has simply emboldened many to blur the lines that require the clear separation of church and state. I am pleased to see at least one government agency reminding us of that distinction. I'm hopeful others will follow.


President John F. Kennedy:

"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute – where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote – where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference – and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

"I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jewish - where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source - where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials - and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. . . .

"Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end - where all men and all churches are treated as equal - where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice - where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind - and where Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood."

Martin Luther King Jr.:

(The 1962 U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibiting state-supported prayer in public schools was) "sound and good, reaffirming something basic in the Nation’s life: separation of church and state."