Open Yer Mouth
Speaking as a theist, sometimes I wonder if the church's tax exempt status is more trouble than it's worth. Well, there's a bill in Congress that would let churches have their wafer and eat it too:
[T]o supporters of a congressional bill that would "take the muzzle off" religious leaders, [North Carolina Rev. Chan] Chandler should have been free to issue endorsements from the bully pulpit -- if not bully the flock into leaving -- without endangering his Baptist church's tax-exempt status.
The case has reignited debate over the House of Worship Freedom of Speech Restoration Act, introduced earlier this year by North Carolina GOP Rep. Walter Jones. The measure, which Jones has proposed two other times, would amend the Internal Revenue Service tax code to enable church leaders to endorse candidates and campaigns in their sacred buildings. Though the IRS has rarely pulled a religious institution's tax exemption because of pulpit politicking, conservatives say even a threat of an investigation has a chilling effect on religious leaders.
Last year, the IRS said it was investigating 60 nonprofit organizations to determine whether they had crossed the campaigning line....
The watchdog organization Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a complaint with the IRS over Chandler's East Waynesville Baptist Church in Waynesville, N.C., last Monday, the day before Chandler resigned....
Some who have been singled out by the IRS say fighting an inquiry can be costly.
The Rev. Cecil Williams, the longtime leader of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco, says he spent more than $30,000 during a nine-year IRS investigation that began in 1985.
In the end, the church was not penalized. "But I had to put a lot of energy and time into that, at the expense of doing something for the church," Williams said....
"It's a freedom of speech issue," said Kristen Quigley, a spokeswoman for Jones. "There's no reason that ministers, rabbis, what have you, shouldn't be allowed to have the same rights as other citizens."
But they already do, said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., a United Methodist pastor for 30 years in Kansas City. The former Kansas City mayor says he has never endorsed anyone in his church, "not even myself."...
This Congress figured to be Jones' best shot at passing the measure, as many of its members were powered to Washington by the same evangelical Christians who supported Bush's re-election.
But when Jones tweaked this incarnation of the bill to attract more moderate support, he lost some conservative organizations that were behind it. Some supporters -- particularly congregations with a broadcast ministry -- found fault with a provision that would allow faith leaders to endorse candidates as long their message wasn't broadcast on radio, TV, the Internet or otherwise "disseminated" beyond those who attended the service....
Jones is hoping he can pick up support from African American members of Congress, as black churches have long been pit stops for politicians. He is also looking to capitalize on liberal sympathies raised last fall when the NAACP said the IRS had threatened to remove its tax-exempt status after its chairman, Julian Bond, criticized the Bush administration....
Several critics said the measure was little more than a way to enable Christian churches to be able to support conservative candidates more openly.
If that's so, said Tom Beaudoin, an assistant professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University, "they may see an example of the law of unintended consequences" -- one that encourages liberal pastors as much as conservative ones....
The writer at Electablog, who is apparently not a theist, still had the best line about the whole thing:
It already requires a heck of a lot of faith to believe the stories that religion has to offer. I don't know if congregants are ready to make the leap and start believing politicians...
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