Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning

From the Los Angeles Times courtesy of J. Orlin Grabbe:

The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon two days before the 2004 presidential election.

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."

On June 9, the church received a letter from the IRS stating that "a reasonable belief exists that you may not be tax-exempt as a church … " The federal tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from intervening in political campaigns and elections.

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This is looking a lot like Federal harassment to me. I'm quite certain that pro Bush churches have been going wild for a long time now supporting our illegal and immoral war on Iraq--indeed, my mother sent me a bootleg CD during the run up to the war of a sermon by the nationally known pastor of Houston Second Baptist Church, Dr. Ed Young, that explained, step by step, why Christians ought to favor the invasion. Why weren't they warned by the IRS?

Granted, if All Saints had crossed the line by favoring a particular candidate, the IRS would have to cut their tax-exempt status: that's not what happened, however. Churches must be allowed to discuss political issues in terms of their religious beliefs; interfering with that constitutes a violation of First Amendment freedoms. So either the IRS is really, really stupid, or it's harassment. My bet is that it's the latter.

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