Pastor who blasted Romney as ‘Satan’ lands in hot water

June 1, 2007

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Bill Keller, host of the Florida-based Live Prayer TV program as well as LivePrayer.com, wrote in his daily devotional, “If you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!” Keller, a fairly prominent televangelist in religious right circles and a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s college, distributed the message to 2.4 million email subscribers.

It was a striking comment, but more importantly, it might also have been legally problematic.

Florida evangelist Bill Keller says he was making a spiritual — not political — statement when he warned the 2.4 million subscribers to his Internet prayer ministry that “if you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!”

But the Washington-based advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State says the Internal Revenue Service should revoke the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status of Bill Keller Ministries, nonetheless.

Keller, 49, who has a call-in show on a Tampa television station and a Web site called Liveprayer.com, on May 11 sent out a “daily devotional” that called Romney “an unabashed and proud member of the Mormon cult founded by a murdering polygamist pedophile named Joseph Smith nearly 200 years ago.” If the former Massachusetts governor wins the GOP nomination and the presidency, Keller’s message added, it will “ultimately lead millions of souls to the eternal flames of hell.”

Federal tax law prohibits tax-exempt groups, including churches and other religious ministries, from intervening in partisan political campaigns. When a pastor uses his or her tax-exempt group to tell followers not to vote for someone, that generally counts as “intervention.”

Keller told the WaPo that he was making a “spiritual statement about Mitt Romney.” That’s rather hard to believe.

My friends at Americans United fleshed out the details, making clear that Keller was focusing on the election, not religion.

Keller goes on to say, “Having Romney as President is no different than having a Muslim or Scientologist as President. Please, don’t tell me that Mitt Romney is the best option. I’ll stay home and not vote before I will vote for satan, since if you vote for Romney you are voting for satan!”

Four days later, Keller wrote another column attacking Romney and recommending that readers support a third-party candidate.

“As you know I am a huge advocate of Christians taking their stand in all areas of the marketplace, including politics,” writes Keller. “Most likely our only real option will be choosing a third party candidate who will take a stand to uphold Biblical values. I already know that in this two party system we have, a third party candidate has virtually ZERO chance of ever being elected. However, this election is going to be a test of conscience for Christians.”

It’ll be interesting to see how (or whether) the IRS follows up, but it seems pretty clear that Keller was using his ministry to intervene in the election.

Stay tuned.

If the IRS follows up, can we hope for a domino effect?

  • I’d like to hear of ANY instance where a Church ever had it’s tax-exempt revoke for Political Intervention.

  • Romney should sue him. The IRS should bury his 501(c)(3) status because he is talking about “voting”, not “praying”. So many “Christians” donate money to these bigots to think for them so they don’t have to think for themselves. Joined together in condemnation justified by some imaginary authority they claim comes from the God of hate. Remove the tax exempt staus and sue him.

  • Can we revoke the Catholic Church’s tax exemption given the statements of Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis and Archbishop Charles J. Chaput in Denver, that catholics were required to support Bush rather than Kerry in the 2004 election?

  • I’m pretty sure Keller will take any adverse ruling and use it to his own advantage, because his idiotic followers will see it as yet another example of the secular humanists joining up with cult members to oppress the faithful few.

    Keller, in a telephone interview, laughed off the controversy. “Let them come after me for making a spiritual statement about Mitt Romney. I would love that,” he said. “Bring it on.”

    What I hope is all the big money Republicans who’ve been backing Romney continue to miss the broader implications of this little dustup. I’ve said for a long time that (for us) Romney would be a great GOP candidate because the thumpers won’t vote for a “cult member”.

  • I’ve said for a long time that (for us) Romney would be a great GOP candidate because the thumpers won’t vote for a “cult member”. — Racerx

    I agree, and they may not say so in public as this particular pastor has, but that is what the overwhelming majority of fundamentalists believe. It is a very deeply ingrained prejudice that will not be overcome in one election cycle. They will vote for Hillary (a woman) or Obama (a black man) before they vote for a Mormon, no matter how good looking or qualified he may be. Further it gives me no pleasure to say that this is so, because it says a lot about the state of our country, and in this instance I wish I was wrong.

  • He would have been well within bounds to call Romney a servant of Satan and leave the obvious conclusion to his flock. Where he crossed the line was in telling them specifically not to vote for a particular candidate by name in a particular election. That’s not spiritual, it’s political.

    That said, the IRS has been traditionally leery of messing with religious organizations’ non-profit status, so don’t hold your breath for them to do anything about it. Especially in this administration.

  • Keller is an idiot and a hypocrite. He was in federal prison for “befriending Satan” – yes, as a CRIMINAL! But he is also in the process of making “Satan” popular and attractive. How? Because Romney is going to be the next President, and will win another term and will be reputed as one of the BEST, if not THE BEST President. What will Keller say then? This guy was the same one that claimed that Bush will not win a second term. Haven’t people (his followers) realized how stupid and ridiculous this guy is?

  • Keller told the WaPo that he was making a “spiritual statement about Mitt Romney. –CB

    Don’t know about “spiritual”, but it sure as heck was “spirited”

  • For Dougyg, from the Americans United web site:

    The Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton, N.Y., lost its tax-exempt status in 1995 after the IRS determined it had violated federal tax law by publishing a full-page ad in USA Today in late October of 1992 advising people that voting for presidential candidate Bill Clinton was a sin. The church sued in federal court to regain its tax-exempt status but lost in federal district court. A federal appellate court later upheld the ruling denying the church tax-exempt status.

    BAC

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