Gus Booth

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is urging the Internal Revenue Service to fix problems with its enforcement of laws against churches endorsing political candidates. In January, a Minnesota District Court judge ruled that the IRS did not have the proper procedures in place to investigate Living Word Christian Center, an investigation [...]

The Internal Revenue Service’s investigations into alleged tax violations by two Minnesota-based churches have been thwarted by procedural problems. Those cases highlight the special tax-exempt status churches receive under federal law, but also problems at the IRS. While reforms are underway, the religious right is planning to take advantage of a neutered IRS by encouraging a mass law-breaking day when churches endorse candidates from the pulpit.

Religious right leaders are celebrating the postponement of an IRS complaint against a Warroad, Minn., pastor alleging he violated tax laws when he twice endorsed Sen. John McCain from his pulpit in 2008.

An initiative spurred by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a religious right legal outfit affiliated with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, has prompted complaints to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including one against Minnesota’s Warroad Community Church. The ADF says that at least 30 churches participated in its Pulpit Freedom Sunday and endorsed presidential [...]

It must have seemed an attractive idea at the time. But a much-heralded push to organize mass violations of an IRS ban on political endorsements in churches seems to be attracting few takers. And the IRS has already pledged to review complaints about any churches that do participate.