Image: Ben McLeod

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 involving controversial church finances first reported by the Minnesota Independent in 2007.

“Given the pervasiveness of church politicking violations, as well as efforts by some organizations in recent years to encourage houses of worship to blatantly violate federal law,” the AU wrote to the IRS, “having a clear and valid enforcement regime is absolutely essential for the ongoing protection of religious liberty.”

Besides LWCC — whose pastor, Mac Hammond, endorsed Rep. Michele Bachmann from the pulpit in 2006 — another Minnesota church has been under investigation, but that probe was dropped this year due to enforcement problems.

Warroad Community Church pastor Gus Booth twice endorsed Sen. John McCain in 2008. Because the IRS did not have proper standing, the agency was forced to cease its investigation.

Americans United’s letter told the IRS that the ability to investigate churches for unlawful politicking is vital to the health of religion in the United States:

Americans United has long recognized that religion flourishes best when the wall between church and state is vigilantly maintained. Church politicking embroils houses of worship in divisive battles, pitting congregants against each other and their clergy.

The IRS limitation on partisan politicking is an important legal requirement that ensures that houses of worship, like all other non-profit organizations, do not embroil themselves in partisan disputes.

Image: Ben McLeod

The Internal Revenue Service’s investigations into alleged tax violations by two Minnesota-based churches, Living Word Christian Center (LWCC) and Warroad Community Church, have been thwarted by internal procedural problems.

These cases highlight the special tax-exempt status churches receive by law, but they also underscore problems at the IRS. In effect, the IRS has been unsuccessful in investigating allegations of tax violations by churches because years of conflicting congressional action have made it impossible for the IRS to follow its own rules.

And while the IRS has undertaken the potentially months-long process to reform its broken system, the religious right is seeking to exploit it by encouraging churches to flout the law and endorse candidates from the pulpit next month.

During the 2008 election, Warroad Community Church pastor Gus Booth, a Republican activist, apparently broke tax laws that prohibit electioneering by tax-exempt churches when he endorsed John McCain for president and trashed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton from the pulpit. Last month the IRS suspended its investigation into the church, citing “a pending issue regarding the procedure used to initiate the case.”

In a similar case, the Minnesota Independent (then the Minnesota Monitor) identified questionable accounting practices by the Brooklyn Park–based Living Word Christian Center in 2007, which eventually led to an IRS investigation. But in January of this year, a U.S. District Court judge in Minneapolis also rejected an IRS summons to Living Word Christian Center because of procedural errors.

In both cases conflicting congressional actions prevented the agency from following its own rules.

In 1984, Congress passed the Church Audit Procedures Act to make it harder for the IRS to investigate church abuse of tax law. Among its provisions: An IRS official making a case against a church must hold a rank “no lower than that of a principal Internal Revenue officer for an internal revenue region.”

But thanks to a 1998 act of Congress, the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act, internal revenue regions (and their principal officers) were abolished, and the IRS was divided into sections servicing different categories of taxpayers, including individuals, businesses, and tax-exempt organizations like churches.

This change directly benefited Living Word Christian Center: It won its case in January because the IRS official charged with investigating the allegations wasn’t legally authorized to do so. Similarly, with no one on staff to legally investigate Warroad Community Church, the IRS suspended its investigation.

Reforms proposed by the IRS, entered into the Federal Register in early August, would clear up the contradiction, making the agency’s Director of Exempt Organizations the primary authority for investigating possible violations of tax law by churches. But the process of adopting those changes will be lengthy, involving a public comment period and hearings.

In the meantime, a group of churches plans to violate the law while there’s no one at the IRS to investigate.

On Sunday Sept. 27, the Alliance Defense Fund, a Focus on the Family–affiliated legal group, is encouraging pastors to endorse candidates from the pulpit. This year will be the second year of ADF’s “Pulpit Initiative.” Last year 33 churches participated, including Warroad Community Church.

The ADF’s Eric Stanley said that the campaign “is really part of a long, sustained campaign” to get a court challenge to IRS laws governing electioneering.

“We feel very confident that when we do, it will not take long for a federal judge to strike down this unconstitutional restriction on churches’ rights.”

Rob Boston, communications director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, writes that the new IRS rules should give churches participating in Pulpit Freedom Sunday a reason to pause.

“The fact that the IRS has issued these new rules is a sign that it wants to have a mechanism in place that will enable it to investigate churches that openly flout the law by endorsing or opposing candidates,” he wrote on the group’s blog. “Far from rolling over, it looks to me like the IRS is girding for battle. Churches that choose to follow the ADF down this misguided path can’t say they weren’t warned.”

Image: Ben McLoed

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. The IRS says a procedural move forced them to close the case, but have the option to open it again in the future.

“Both Hillary and Barack favor the shedding of innocent blood (abortion) and the legalization of the abomination of homosexual marriage,” Booth said in a May 2008 sermon at Warroad Community Church. “We need to vote for the most righteous of candidates. And it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out. The most righteous is John McCain.”

Booth admitted that he knew he was violating the law in a letter to the IRS and in another letter to Americans United for Church and State, which initiated a complaint against the church. Because Booth’s church enjoys an exemption from paying federal and state income taxes, the church is not allowed to endorse candidates.

Booth allegedly violated the law again during the James Dobson–inspired Pulpit Freedom Sunday, when churches were encouraged to break the law by endorsing McCain from the pulpit. Booth again sent a letter to the IRS flaunting his law-breaking sermon.

The IRS began a case against the church, but the agency said in a letter to Booth (pdf) dated July 7 that due to “a pending issue regarding the procedure used to initiate the case,” they have closed the file. However, the letter said that the agency “may commence a future inquiry… after it resolves that procedural issue.”

The Minnesota Family Council says that the IRS is being a bully and that churches should have the right to endorse candidates and keep their tax-free status.

“Pastors should be free to speak or not to speak in opposition to or support of political candidates according to the dictates of their consciences,” said Family Council president Tom Prichard. “They shouldn’t have their free speech rights, guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, undermined by the IRS. Yet that appears to be what the IRS is trying to do in this instance,” concluded Prichard.

But the group that filed the complaint, Americans United, said churches are not free to be partisan — and shouldn’t be. “Booth is free to endorse anyone he wants to as a private citizen,” the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United said when the group filed the complaint. “But when he is standing in his tax-exempt pulpit as the top official of a tax-exempt religious organization, he must lay partisanship aside.”

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed formal complaints with the IRS on Monday targeting six churches that violated an IRS rule stipulating that churches that take advantage of the IRS’ tax breaks need to refrain from partisan politics or else pay their share of taxes.

Americans United identified the six churches based on media reports.

Pastor Jody Hice of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Bethlehem, Ga., said that McCain “holds more to a biblical world view” on issues of abortion and homosexuality and urged his congregation to vote for McCain and not Sen. Barack Obama.

Pastor Gus Booth of Warroad Community Church in Warroad, Minn., told his congregation, “We need to vote for the most righteous of candidates. And it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out. The most righteous is John McCain.” He said that homosexuality is immoral and Obama’s refusal to denounce homosexuality and abortion is “evil, wicked and immoral. Obama condones what the Bible condemns,” he said.

Booth was a delegate to the Republican National Convention (RNC) and had previously endorsed McCain from the pulpit.

Pastor Paul Blair of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, Okla., said from the pulpit, “As a Christian and as an American citizen, I will be voting for John McCain.”

Pastor Luke Emrich of New Life Church in West Bend, Wis., referenced abortion and said to his church, “I’m telling you straight up I would choose life. I would cast a vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin.” On Obama he said, “If a candidate supports something that is evil and wicked from a biblical perspective, then I have the right to call out the wickedness, and I have the right to say this is what this person stands for — this is wrong.”

The Rev. Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church, Buena Park, Calif., came out strongly against Obama and said, “I am angry because the government and the IRS and some Christians have taken away the rights of pastors. I have a right to endorse anybody I doggone well please. And if they don’t like that, too bad. … According to my Bible and in my opinion, there is no way in the world a Christian can vote for Barack Hussein Obama. Mr. Obama is not standing up for anything that is tradition in America.”

He then endorsed Alan Keyes of the American Independent Party. “I’m here to tell you that I personally endorse Alan Keyes as our next president of the United States,” said Drake. “There’s no way a Christian can vote for Barack Obama. You could vote for John McCain. I want you to vote your conscience. Let the Bible act as your guide.”

One pastor missed his flight and couldn’t participate, although it’s likely that Bishop Robert Smith Sr. of Word of Outreach Center in Little Rock, Ark., would have endorsed McCain. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

The Rev. Francis Pultro of Calvary Chapel, Philadelphia, Pa., told his congregation, “As Christians, it’s clear we should vote for John McCain. He is the only candidate I believe a Christian can vote for.”

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said that pastors who violated the law should be ashamed.

“These pastors flagrantly violated the law and now must deal with the consequences,” said Lynn. “This is one of the most appalling Religious Right gambits I’ve ever seen. Church leaders are supposed to tend to Americans’ spiritual needs, not behave like partisan political hacks. I urge the IRS to act swiftly in these cases.”

He continued, “A pastor who knowingly violates federal tax law is setting a poor example for his or her congregation. Every pastor who took part in this stunt ought to be ashamed.”

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.

The so-called “Pulpit Initiative” (earlier MnIndy post) was launched by the Alliance Defense Fund, an offshoot of James (Focus on the Family) Dobson’s evangelical empire. As the Arizona-based organization’s website explains, this coming Sunday, September 28, is the target date for the effort. When IRS complaints ensue, ADF’s strategy is then to take individual cases to court in an attempt to overturn the IRS rule.

But as zero hour approaches, there are signs that few churches care to be so cavalier about their nonprofit tax status. Last week ADF officials pledged in an email response to Minnesota Independent, “We will have updated information regarding the pastors participating in the ‘Pulpit Initiative’ on our website… beginning on September 22nd, a week before Pulpit Freedom Sunday when the pastors give their messages.”

Three days after that self-appointed deadline, however, there is still no accounting of participants on the ADF website, however, and two subsequent emails to ADF official Erik Stanley asking for the update have gone unanswered. I phoned over a dozen metro-area evangelical churches to ask if any were planning to participate; so far, none has even called back. (I’ll update if any do.)

The Internal Revenue Service, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that it will review complaints over “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” as the event is also called. Several former IRS employees have filed a complaint with their former employer alleging wrongdoing by ADF and participating churches. The prospect of legal action is of course no discouragement to ADF; it’s the plan. Churches, however, seem to be less sanguine about the idea.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State said they will be reporting churches who violate the law to the IRS. Said Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, “Pastors who are thinking of joining the ADF’s gambit still have time to change their minds and I urge them to do so.”

One Minnesota church pastor, however, has been very vocal about his plans to violate the law. Pastor Gus Booth of Warroad Community Church–located in a small town near the Canadian border–says he has no qualms about endorsing John McCain from the pulpit and in fact has been doing so all summer. Booth was also a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

Booth told National Public Radio on Wednesday, “Bottom line is, I’m a spiritual leader in this community, and spiritual leaders need to make decisions. We need to lead spiritually, and we need to be able to speak about the moral issues of the day. And right now, the moral issues of today are also the political issues of today.”

But not all religious leaders agree that mixing religion and politics is a good idea. The Anti-Defamation League criticized the move on Wednesday.

“Ministers and pastors, in their personal capacity, already have every right to support or oppose candidates for public office,” said Abraham H. Foxman, national director for ADL. “They can speak out on political issues, and promote voter participation and voter education initiatives. But politicizing churches coerces congregants, distorts the political system and poses a serious threat to religious liberty.”