Selective enforcement from the IRS?

November 8, 2005

The story about the All Saints Episcopal Church in Southern California made the rounds a bit yesterday, and in light of my background on the issue, I wanted to weigh in.

Rector J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena told many congregants during morning services Sunday that a guest sermon by the church’s former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, on Oct. 31, 2004, had prompted a letter from the IRS.

In his sermon, Regas, who from the pulpit opposed both the Vietnam War and 1991’s Gulf War, imagined Jesus participating in a political debate with then-candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas said that “good people of profound faith” could vote for either man, and did not tell parishioners whom to support.

But he criticized the war in Iraq, saying that Jesus would have told Bush, “Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine. Forcibly changing the regime of an enemy that posed no imminent threat has led to disaster.”

Regardless of whether Rev. Regas’ message was correct, it’s fair to say his sermon was at least borderline. Pastors are, of course, entitled to condemn (or praise) positions on moral issues like war, but the law prohibits tax-exempt churches from intervening in political campaigns. In context, this was a pastor, just two days before an election, telling a congregation that one candidate has taken a position on an important issue that would be rejected by God.

He didn’t say, “Don’t vote for Bush,” but for the purposes of tax law, what Regas did may very well have constituted intervention in the campaign. It would be similar if a pastor of a right-wing church, just two days before the election, imagined Jesus chatting with Kerry and Bush about abortion and then told congregants that Kerry’s position was at odds with God’s wishes. Churches that engage in these kinds of efforts should expect the IRS to stop by for a chat.

But the details of what the IRS did in this case — and didn’t do in analogous cases — are important here. There’s reason to at least wonder if there’s a political bias at play.

For example, when a ministry is suspected of intervening in a political campaign, ordinarily the first step is a warning letter from the IRS. According to the LA Times, All Saints Episcopal received a letter stating that “a reasonable belief exists that you may not be tax-exempt as a church.” In other words, right off the bat, the IRS started playing hardball.

Moreover, usually a house of worship is reminded of legal limits, the institution promises to play nice, and unless there’s a pattern of repeated abuse, the matter is final. The IRS seems to have taken a far more aggressive position towards All Saints Episcopal. The church provided the IRS with a copy of all literature given out before the election; the IRS said it wasn’t satisfied. The church said it never endorses candidates; the IRS told church officials to either admit wrongdoing or face more intense scrutiny.

Given the circumstances, members of the congregation are at least suspicious that All Saints, which is known its activism and its liberal stands on social issues, is being singled out for its beliefs. That may not be unreasonable.

[The IRS] did not take the same view about an even more partisan sermon by a Baptist pastor in Arkansas who preached on the successes of George Bush. On July 4, 2004, the Rev. Ronnie Floyd of First Baptist Church of Springdale praised Bush for his war on terrorism and his stands against abortion and same-sex marriage, while lambasting Kerry. Floyd even employed the church’s audio-visual system to show large pictures of the candidates in the auditorium while he spoke, using a flattering photo of Bush and a smaller unflattering picture of Kerry. According to a July 21, 2005, report in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the IRS has decided not to pursue action against the church for this obvious campaign intervention.

This decision gives the public the impression that IRS enforcement is at best arbitrary, or at worst, biased.

Indeed it does. The IRS had a reputation for evenhandedness in this area, until Bush was able to start staffing the agency. Now, rather suddenly, a liberal church is being hounded for a borderline case, while a comparable conservative church is ignored.

In fact, let’s also not forget that the most high-profile fight over tax-exempt politicking came just a week before last year’s election — when the IRS announced it was going after the NAACP for its criticism of Bush. Now it’s All Saints Episcopal.

During Watergate, evidence emerged that Nixon used the IRS to harass and intimidate political opponents, as part of a pattern of Nixon abusing his power. Something to keep in mind.

It really will be a task in 2008 to remove all the lower level clowns appointed/hired by this administration. That should be job one–one great big beaurocratic high colonic.

  • Gee, I don’t remember the IRS looking into the Catholic church when they threatened to disallow communion for Kerry. That isn’t a specific endorsement or un-endorsement, but it’s not much different.

  • Bush has turned ” OUR GREAT COUNTRY ” into an IRAN, RUSSIA or many other countries that he preaches are bad. But they are only bad over there. For Bush, what he does here is moral and godly. What a HACK

  • I’m posting this comment in hopes of helping get the right action out of the liberal community. I’ve posted this on Americablog based on some of the postings there:

    I’m a member of All Saints Church in Pasadena. I resent the calls by those on the left who would lump our progressive faith community with the “Christian” community as defined by the media.

    It is my faith that served as the underlying foundation for my wife’s and my work for Howard Dean. We are called to embody Christ’s life. Christ’s life was always about inclusive love of one another. Taking care of the least of these. Trying to co-create the kingdom of heaven here and now (“thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”).

    Our faith community has the radical notion that there are many ways to get to God and we don’t claim to have a lock on what that is. It is why, before communion, these words are spoken – “Wherever you are on your journey of faith, you are welcome here.” An invitation to ALL to participate in the central liturgy of our worship service. (look up George Regas’ sermon delivered at the Riverside Church in NYC in which he talks about this most clearly).

    Too often people on the left dismiss people of faith as being part of the problem. I’m tired of this kind of ignorance. It is people like us whom you should be relying on more and encouraging to be involved in the political process. I suggest going to these sites to see just how important we people of faith will be if the Left is ever going to succeed in its work – http://www.sojo.net/ and http://www.tikkun.org/ or even to here http://www.allsaints-pas.org/all_saints_church.htm to read past sermons from our church.

    Church and politics do mix. Past rectors at All Saints have repeated this phrase time and time again, “to hold a bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other”. Our faith calls us into the world, into our communities to make it and them better places to live for all.

    Salvation is not some other worldly place after we are dead – it is right here and now, each of us realizing our fullest human potential to heal the world and each other in whatever ways our talents and passions call us to. You can see this in the Lord’s Prayer in these words “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.

    Our community, ideally, is one which shows up on Sunday, is inspired, and goes out into the world the other 6 days seeking in our own unique ways to make this a better place to be.

    Don’t disregard us and don’t disrespect us by not taking a strong stand against this anti-democratic action by the IRS. We are among your strongest most capable organizers and activists.

    Regards,

    Patrick Briggs,
    Pasadena, CA

  • I resent the calls by those on the left

    I resent your assumption that all of us “on the left” do anything in unison, least of all that we condemn people of any religious persuasion per se.

    I think it’s good that you hold, and presumably read, both the Bible and the newspaper … and this blog. I do resent people who wrap the cross in the flag, people who, like Bush, claim to derive political policy from Divine guidance – which means tha those who disagree with the policy are then both traitors and evil sinners.

    I’m not sure Jesus would’ve participated in politics were He were living in the UISA today (“My kingdom is not of this Earth”, “Render unto Caesar”), but if He were, I’m certain it would not be as a Republican. The only people he ever became thoroughly angry with were the money changers and the pharisees … i.e., today’s GOP. Would the Man who said “Blessed are the poor” be spending all his political capital on tax breaks for the obscenely rich? Would the Man who said “Blessed are the peacemakers” be bombing the shit out Iraqis who never did, or threatened to do, us any harm? Would the Man who multiplied the loaves and fishes slash the Food Stamps program? Would He who healed slash medicare/medicaid?

    You may not like being lumped in with such nominal Christians as Falwell, Robertson and Dobson. Isn’t it time to imitate Christ by condemning those pharisees?

    I said the left doesn’t do anything in unison, including hating religion. The fact that I do not want to join your church doesn’t mean I hate you. I wish you’d quit seeing me as something subhuman because I don’t believe the way you do. We in the Democratic party are many different causes combined (unlike the GOP which has two, one for each constituency: greed for the rich and fear/hate/revenge for the poor). Why not bring your cause into our big tent? We’ll never all embrace everything about you, but we don’t do that for each other either.

  • Patrick,

    I, for one, welcome your comments. While I don’t embrace any organized religion, I do believe in many of the teachings attributed to Jesus Christ (do unto others, as ye reap so shall ye sow, what you do unto the least of my brothers you do to me) and try to conduct myself accordingly. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Christians I encounter don’t.

    I can imagine it must be frustrating to be a Christian of your stripe living in a country where the face of Christianity is Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Jerry Falwell. And watching this administration pervert and distort true Christian values to divide and distract our country must be awful.

    One of my co-workers is a very active Christian, raised in a family that did missionary work, and she expresses the same frustration. She’s so tired of people assuming that because she goes to church she hates gay people, wants prayer in school, and thinks all non-Christians are going to burn in hell for all eternity. She believes none of those things, and has nearly as much disdain for this president and his administration as I do.

    I have to agree with Ed, though – it sure would be nice to see true Christians calling out the wolves in sheep’s clothing who have hijacked your faith for so many years and exposing them for the evil, manipulating hypocrites and pretenders they are. It would have a much greater impact coming from you & yours than us & ours. I think the fact that this post exists should reassure you that we’re not ignoring this IRS witch hunt.

    I would never presume to speak for anyone but myself (as Ed says, we liberals do nothing in unison, which is one the things I love most about us), but I’m happy to have you at the table.

    Shannon

  • Welcome, Patrick. I think you will find that this site has actually shown great respect for the Episcopal Church, recnetly posting and discussing favorably various recent speeches by John Danforth (including a column he wrote for Episcopal Life newspaper).

    The post that heads this thread should not be seen as an attack – indeed, in the end it argues that your church is being unfairly singled out. But while I have not seen anyone here say people with religious beliefs should stay out of politics (and indeed, I have seen many posts here calling for the left to mobilize its own faith community better to respond to the radical right), I think there is by and large a discomfort here with many mechanisms of institutional intermingling of church and politics.

    I, and I suspect many others here, found the grandstanding by several more conservative Catholic bishops and priests re John Kerry, abortion, and communion, to be troubling (especially as we move towards a majority of Catholics on the Supreme Court). But to be consistent, if we say “calling Kerry out and making a big splach of it by claiming his stance on abortion violates church principles so close to the election is open politicing and should be unlawful for a tax-exempt institution” we have to be equally open to the possibility that some churches who share progressive beliefs may do/have done the same thing – intentional or not.

    I admit that I think your situation falls short of being unlawful, but I also admit it seems to me a close call. Institutionally, no one forces churches to avoid taxes. The choice to do so comes with trade-offs. One of those should be that – right or left – you stay comfortably away from the campaign line. Your parishoners can, of course, do whatever they please – this is only an issue for institutions.

  • Hey, I’ve gone to that church. Cool! My uncle is one of the people who hands out the programs for the early services.

  • Patrick,

    I truly appreciate your comments. I for one am a minister of a Christian church but do not agree with today’s modern Republican party’s adherence to the revengeful right. Few of their ideals reflect true Christianity. However, quite a bit of what Democrats stand for truly reflect what Christ speaks and requires of us. I also want to say to others in this blog that you will be surprised how many evangelical Christians are Democrats. Not all Christians are vengeful, and wicked as these so-called right-wing Christians try to portray of all Christians. I say to Jerry Fallwell and the others, “Speak for yourself.” These Christians (including other Christians in the Repug Party) do have concerns about crime, the state of the environment, the savage treatment of the poor, the unneccessary war in Irag, dishonesty and corruption in government (no matter the party), and the idiocy of this lunatic-laced excuse for a president.

    Moreover, I listened to parts of the sermon and I believe that that minister had some sobering words to say to each side that would serve to bring about a better understanding of who we are and how we can improve our outlook on life as human beings. His sermon sounded similar to Dr. MLK’s sermon when he brought some clarity to why he opposed the war in Vietnam. Anyway, thanks CB for bringing this issue to our attention.

  • Wow. I admire Patrick for posting and have to say, I’m a little surprised by some of the responses his post has generated.

    Ed, I think Patrick and you are on the same side. After all, Patrick and his wife are supporters of Howard Dean. And I think Patrick is absolutely correct when he says that the left (which I believe he is a part of) needs to do a better job of embracing people of faith (esp. those that are trying to be TRUE Christians eg following in Christ’s teachings). Jimmy Carter makes the same point in his new autobiography, which I encourage everyone to read…

    The problem with “calling out the wolves’ in sheep’s clothing” is that the wolves’ own the bully pulpit’s in this country right now. Robertson, Dobson, etc. have megaphones. How often do politically moderate Christians ever get the opportunity to speak out (other than Jesse Jackson)??

    In any case, we should all agree that what the IRS is doing here is unjust, if simply because they ARE being selective in who they choose to prosecute. And I don’t see any real evidence that what the IRS is doing is here the correct course of action.

    It’s frightening that this admin is using its tools to persecute religions for leaning left and reward those that lean right…. It’s starting to sound like government endorsement of certain beliefs to me.

    • Comments are closed.