A northern Minnesota church is under fire for a sermon that told Christians that they cannot vote for Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Pastor Gus Booth of Warroad Community Church gave the sermon and later acknowledged that he knew he was violating Internal Revenue Service rules. He is also a Republican party activist. Warroad is on Lake of the Woods near the Minnesota-Canada border.
“If you are a Christian, you cannot support Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama," said Booth in a May 18 sermon. "Both Hillary and Barack favor the shedding of innocent blood (abortion) and the legalization of the abomination of homosexual marriage.”
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is urging the IRS to investigate the church. “Booth is free to endorse anyone he wants to as a private citizen,” the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director said in a statement Wednesday. “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. The IRS needs to look into this apparent violation of federal tax law.”
In a column in the church’s newsletter, Booth acknowledged that he knew that his sermon would break federal tax law that prohibits tax-exempt churches from endorsing candidates for office. “I have read in the past about how you have a campaign to intimidate churches into silence when it comes to speaking about candidates for office," wrote Booth. "I am letting you know that I will not be intimidated into silence when I believe that God wants me to address the great moral issues of the day, including who will be our next national leader.”
But Booth is not just a pastor expressing his views as a religious leader; he’s a registered Republican and party activist. He was selected to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in September.
Photo: Nathan Rosenquist
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If Gus Booth is a delegate for the Republican National Convention it will be interesting if he will vote on any party platforms that not only include church/state issues, but also issues that include border crossings.
[Angle Inlet School has an easy to understand website on how the tip of Minnesota came to be US land. It was negotiated by Ben Franklin, John Jay and two others after the Revolutionary War in a four way treaty.]
Gus Booth may believe that God wants him to address the great moral issues of the day, and perhaps it is so.
Will Angle Inlet students need Passports or the newer passport cards to cross the border each day? Will the State of Minnesota pay for those cards? Are any children, or relatives of children, in the congregation of Gus Booth involved in the daily border crossings?
Will Gus Booth advocate the fencing of the border of Minnesota [USA] and Ontario [Canada] at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul?
I hope that Gus Booth can both hear God's calling to discuss great moral issues of the day, and I hope that some day he will be well enough informed that a local, city, county, state, national, inter-national DISCUSSION on border crossings can be one of those great moral issues that he may be able to lead.
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Obviously, first and foremost, this church should lose its tax exempt status. Pure and simple. The church's most public spokesperson, knowing the consequences, willfully violated the law anyway.
And secondly, Mr. Booth should be sued by his church board for abdicating his responsibility in leading a nonprofit organization and threatening the organization's financial health by jeopardizing its tax exempt status. According to the Minnesota Attorney General's Office, Minnesota law "imposes on [board] directors the fiduciary duties of care, loyalty and obedience to the law." Obviously, Mr. Booth as an employee disregarded all three of these duties, and the board should be forced to take action accordingly, including not only firing Mr. Booth for obviously failing to protect the organization, but also attempting to recover from Mr. Booth legal fees and compensation for the loss of the church's tax-exempt status, if it is revoked by the IRS (which it should be.)
All said, there should be serious, serious consequences here.
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I'm sure he believes that god speaks to him,as do many other people living in padded cells. You're right ericjames, outside of America people are concerned about the right wing christian fundamentalism in american churches. Did'nt another pastor running for the republican presidential nomination say that as president he would re-write the constitution to incorporate religious dogma? I refer of course to Mike Huckerbee.
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