It’s hard to be disappointed with the Washington Times (the ultra-conservative newspaper owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon) when expectations are already so low, but a report in today’s edition was worse than usual.
A Republican congressman became “enraged” less than one week before the presidential election when the Internal Revenue Service warned that churches would risk their tax-exempt status if they prayed for the election of either President Bush or Sen. John Kerry.
According to the IRS, prayer in favor of either the Republican or Democratic candidate — or any other national politicians, for that matter — would be viewed as a violation of the tax code and place in jeopardy the church’s tax-exempt status.
“This is a complete infringement on the right to free exercise of religion,” said North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter B. Jones, a Catholic and longtime advocate of free speech for religious leaders. “The government should never be in the business of telling religious institutions how to pray.”
Sounds outrageous, right? How could the IRS intervene to warn churches about praying? They can’t. Walter Jones was responding to a non-existent IRS warning when he issued a press release two weeks ago. The whole thing was a ridiculous mistake.
For the Washington Times to state this urban legend as fact is incredible, even for a propaganda rag like this one.
This is one of the sillier controversies of the year. Here’s the real story:
Last month, Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice wrote to the IRS on behalf of the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, asking whether his plan to lead prayers for Bush’s reelection in churches in Ohio and Pennsylvania would violate federal tax law. The agency responded in the standard way, acknowledging receipt of the letter and enclosing a copy of IRS Publication 1828, the guidelines regarding church political activities.
A lawyer for Robertson’s group, James M. Henderson Sr., regarded this as a “form letter” and followed up in a phone conversation with an IRS official. It was that phone conversation that left Henderson with the impression that “prayers directed to God seeking his intervention in an election” would be treated the same as political campaign speeches from the pulpit. Henderson sent another letter to the IRS on Thursday seeking clarification.
The IRS is deliberately ambiguous on such matters, and only egregious violations are prosecuted. “Praying for a candidate in and of itself does not present difficulties,” assures IRS spokesman Frank Keith. So parishioners remain free to pray for the candidate of their choice in church Sunday morning.
There was no “warning” from the IRS. Officials with the Christian Defense Coalition have admitted they never even saw the IRS form letter. Nevertheless, far-right websites, religious right groups, and their like-minded friends in Congress went apoplectic with word that the federal government is trying to regulate prayers at houses of worship. None of this relates to reality in any way.
And worst of all, this whole matter was resolved to everyone’s satisfaction weeks ago. The urban legend was debunked, the IRS clarified that no such warning exists, and the far-right moved on. Why on earth is the Washington Times reporting still reporting this nonsense today as if it were true? I know the paper’s standards are pretty poor, but couldn’t the Times call the IRS before running something like this? Or, I don’t know, try looking this up on Google?