Goading Churches into Defying Federal Tax Laws

The Religious Right has long made abuse of the priviledge of federal tax-exemption for churches and other non-profit organizations a political tool. While most of this goes on sub rosa, sometimes the movement organizes efforts to generate widespread civil disobedience, in hopes of making the law unenforceable.

This year is one of those times.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Alliance Defense Fund, the premeir religious right legal network wants to goad churches into a high profile test. But there may be more going on here than meets the eye.

The Journal reports:

Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., nonprofit, is hoping at least one sermon will prompt the Internal Revenue Service to investigate, sparking a court battle that could get the tax provision declared unconstitutional. Alliance lawyers represent churches in disputes with the IRS over alleged partisan activity.

The action marks the latest attempt by a conservative organization to help clergy harness their congregations to sway elections. The protest is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 28, a little more than a month before the general election, in a year when religious concerns and preachers have been a regular part of the political debate.

It also comes as the IRS has increased its investigations of churches accused of engaging in politics....

Alliance fund staff hopes 40 or 50 houses of worship will take part in the action, including clerics from liberal-leaning congregations. About 80 ministers have expressed interest, including one Catholic priest, says Erik Stanley, the Alliance's senior legal counsel.

Even as such stunts serve to distort our national discourse in a theocratically framed argument, Americans United for Separation of Church and State noted in a press release that the chances of prevailing are slim:

In May of 2000, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously held that the IRS properly revoked the tax exemption of the Church at Pierce Creek, a congregation near Binghamton, N.Y., that bought newspaper ads in 1992 opposing presidential candidate Bill Clinton. (Americans United filed a complaint with the IRS about this clear violation of tax law.)

The court ruled in Branch Ministries v. Rossotti that "the revocation of the Church’s tax-exempt status neither violated the Constitution nor exceeded the IRS’s statutory authority." (The three judges were Reagan appointees)

The Interfaith Alliance added:

The Alliance Defense Fund’s call for pastors to break the law represents the height of irresponsibility.  They are putting churches across the country unnecessarily at risk to costly and time-consuming investigations that could result in harsh financial penalties.  Putting churches in legal and financial jeopardy seems a bizarre way of defending religious freedom, which the ADF claims to defend.

But there is an even greater issue at stake in this campaign than violating the law.  When religious leaders endorse candidates from the pulpit, they weaken both the sanctity of religion and the integrity of democracy.  The IRS allows – and the Interfaith Alliance encourages – religious leaders to speak out on the important political issues of the day, but when clergy endorse specific candidates or parties in their official capacity, they abuse their pastoral authority."

The IRS rules, while detailed and understandably unable to cover every cicumstance, are clear in principle:

"...all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."

Any questions?

Nevertheless, the IRS has historically been reluctant to punish churches for straying over the line. However, over the past few years, the agency has been ramping-up both education and enforcement actions as churches, goaded by the religious right, have bent and broken the clear proscriptions against electioneering.

This could be a showdown year.

"I think very few clergy will yield to the Alliance Defense Fund’s worldly temptation," Barry Lynn of Americans United said. "And those who do will find their churches’ tax exemptions in jeopardy. I assume the ADF will provide a list of congregations unwise enough to join this move, and we’ll be ready to report those churches to the IRS."

It will be tempting to some to view this as a tempest in a tea pot; another example of far out, but not terribly consequential religious right antics. But I think this is a politization effort whose ripple effects will extend far beyond the participating churches, and a constitutional lawsuit that will certainly take years to resolve.
This is certainly an effort to keep the political juices flowing in politically conscious churches of the religious right in an election year in which their fortunes look dim, at least at the national level.

But there is more.

This is an effort that is seeks to frame the ongoing debate over the role of religion in public life over the next few years. We can say this in part because the Alliance Defense Fund is a central strategy organization of the Religious Right, whose board includes top officers of Focus on the Family and Campus Crusade for Christ. Their main initiatives are bellwether activities and merit our attention.

[Crossposted from Talk to Action]