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.
The letter went on to say that “our concerns are based on a Nov. 1, 2004, newspaper article in the Los Angeles Times and a sermon presented at the All Saints Church discussed in the article.”
The IRS cited The Times story’s description of the sermon as a “searing indictment of the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq” and noted that the sermon described “tax cuts as inimical to the values of Jesus.”
Apparently, then, discussing the religious implications of war is reason to make your church not tax-exempt. Now, let me start by saying that I don’t think churches should be tax-exempt anyway, unless they’re performing charitable operations, in which case those operations should be deductible. Otherwise, I don’t see how you can justify allowing a church to be tax-exempt.
That said, however, this church is being threatened for being anti-war. I don’t really think of war as politics, but in America today, apparently, being anti-war is considered “intervening in political campaigns and elections.” Well, if that’s how they want to play it, fine. I assume they’ll next be going after the catholic church for recommending that politicians not be given communion if they are pro-choice and other fundamentalist christian churches who support or discourage voting for certain candidates.
I mean, they’ll be fair, won’t they? AmericaBlog has an idea:
Perhaps we need to write the IRS and demand they do.
Here’s the phone number for the IRS’ national media office, since we are media and all:
202-622-4000.
Tell them you’re looking forward to their investigating the Catholic Church’s tax status, or do they only go after liberal churches
And here’s the chief counsel’s office:
202-622-3300
Tie up those lines, people.