Rogue Pastors Defy IRS
They might just succeed in
getting themselves and their churches in trouble.
Opinion
By de Andréa
November 6, 2014
November 6, 2014
A record number of so-called rogue Christian pastors have endorsed
candidates from the pulpit this election cycle, using Sunday sermons to
defiantly flout their 501 c3 tax rules.
Their message to the IRS: ”Sue
me”.
At least for now, the tax agency is doing anything but. Although
the IRS was sued itself for not enforcing the law and admitted about 100
churches may be breaking the rules, the pastors and their critics alike say the
agency is looking the other way.
At the same time, the number of pastors endorsing candidates in
what they call Pulpit Freedom Sunday jumped from 33 churches in 2008 to more
than 1,600 this year, according to organizers, Alliance Defending Freedom. Moreover
this year, they’ve stepped up their drive, telling pastors to back candidates every
Sunday up until the election, not just one Sunday as in past years.
The church leaders jumped in on high-profile races that would help
decide the Senate and tight governor races across the country, endorsing
candidates from Thom Tillis (R) over Sen. Kay Hagan (D) in North Carolina to
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) over Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) in
Kentucky.
Rev. Mark Cowart, pastor at Colorado Springs-based Church For All
Nations, suggested good Christians should vote Democratic Colorado Gov. John
Hickenlooper out of office in an Oct. 19 sermon, where he endorsed his GOP
rival, Bob Beauprez. “Beauprez
is against more gun control, does not support abortion and he does protect the
man-woman marriage — that’s the one I’m voting for. … I’m endorsing biblical
principles,” the preacher said in a video of the service, pacing a
church stage and chopping his hand through the air for emphasis.
At issue is the churches’ tax break as tax-exempt 501(c)(3)
organizations. They don’t pay taxes, and donations to them can be deducted from
contributors’ taxable income.
But with that break comes limits on political endorsements. Churches
are barred from engaging in political campaigns. In other words since the inception of the IRS
in 1913 and the 501 c3 for churches in 1954, Churches have sold their American
free souls, for a tax break. Kind of
like Judas did, and he’ hung himself.
But Tax Free Churches may have just committed a far worse betrayal than
Judas did. They betrayed God, and…an
entire country.
So while pastors believe they should be able to discuss abortion,
gay marriage and other controversial issues in their sermons, and rightly so,
even though in Houston Texas the birthplace of the tax exemption for churches
has come under fire, until now, they have not backed candidates or used church
money to fund campaign activities, and have been able to keep their tax break.
“You can’t have a tax-exempt entity engaged in politics because
that involves using tax-exempt money for political purposes, so it’s an unfair
playing field,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom From Religion
Foundation, the organization that sued the IRS in 2012 for failing to enforce
electioneering restrictions on churches. The group settled this summer with an
understanding that the IRS would eventually take action.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in an interview last month with Tax
Analysts suggested the IRS isn’t planning to crack down on churches anytime
soon. He said the FFRF lawsuit news “spread out into the world … somehow we are
doing something very different and we are going to show up either more
aggressively or more often in a different way than we have in the past, and
that is not what that case was about at all.”
It’s another sign of the tax agency turned upside down by the tea
party targeting controversy. Although the IRS is under fire from the right for
being heavy-handed with conservative tax-exempt entities, it’s also getting hit
from the left for failing to enforce decade-old rules governing churches and
politics.
The law was written in 1954 by then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson
(D-Texas), who was facing a contentious reelection challenge where several
501(c)(3)s endorsed his opponent, labeling him soft on communism.
The pastors, who make it easy for the IRS by often taping their
sermons and mailing them to the tax agency, argue that it infringes on their
First Amendment rights. This may be true
on issues such as abortion and gay marriage because the government can’t retain
all free speech issues as political. But
one is treading on thin ice when it comes to indorsing a political candidate.
“The church is God’s organization — what right does the government
have to control this?” said Rev. Kevin Baird of Legacy Church in Charleston, S.C.
Well it actually doesn’t, except for the fact that the churches
agreed to it when they sighed the 501 c3 contract, and in return they don’t pay
taxes. They should have known that you
should never enter into a contract with the devil, or be unequally yoked.
In a recent sermon Baird questioned the integrity of a local state
Senate Republican official up for reelection, who calls himself “pro-life” yet
has not advanced legislation on the issue in his committee.
In Charlotte, N.C., Southern Baptist preacher Mark Harris — who
made his own failed bid for Sen. Hagan’s seat in the GOP primary earlier this
year — said he made clear to his congregation that he backed Tillis, decrying
Hagan’s pro-choice and gay marriage stances as “deeds of darkness” during an
October service.
In Georgia a week later, Rev. Jeff Whitmire used his sermon to
back Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) and Senate candidate David Perdue (R), over
their Democratic counterparts Jason Carter and Michelle Nunn, he said.
And Cowart in Colorado also endorsed Rep. Cory Gardner (R) over
incumbent Sen. Mark Udall (D) saying, “We need to see him out.”
“If by chance a member of the IRS gets this sermon and is
listening, sue me,” said evangelical pastor Jim Garlow of the San Diego-based Skyline
Church, after backing Democratic Rep. Scott Peters for reelection. His
Republican challenger, Carl DeMaio, is gay, and could advance a “radical homosexual
agenda,” Garlow warned.
THE BOTTOM LINE: It seems their ultimate
goal is igniting a lawsuit with the IRS, and taking the issue to the Supreme
Court. They had better think that
through though, because they would likely lose for breach of contract. A good definition of wanting their cake and
eat it too. What they should do is stick
to the issues and not political candidates ‘or’ give up their tax free status,
then they could once again become an unrestricted effective voice in the
community and the country. The way it’s
going now, Christians are losing the country to a tyrannical government, the atheists,
baby killers, gays and the barbaric so-called religion of Satan…or, I mean
Islam.
Thanks for listening – de Andréa
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