IRS Orders All Saints to Yield Documents on '04 Political Races

[Rose Siding]

Stepping up its probe of allegedly improper campaigning by churches, the Internal Revenue Service on Friday ordered a liberal Pasadena parish to turn over all the documents and e-mails it produced during the 2004 election year with references to political candidates.

All Saints Episcopal Church and its rector, the Rev. Ed Bacon, have until Sept. 29 to present the sermons, newsletters and electronic communications.

The IRS investigation was triggered by an antiwar sermon delivered by its former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, at the church two days before the 2004 presidential election. The summons even requests utility bills to establish costs associated with hosting Regas' speech. Bacon was ordered to testify before IRS officials Oct. 11.....

Facing the possible loss of his church's tax-exempt status, Bacon said he plans to inform his roughly 3,500 active congregants about the investigation during Sunday's services. Then he plans to seek their advice on whether to comply.
...
Members of All Saints have a long history of social activism. The sermon that attracted the IRS' attention was delivered by Regas, who was well-known for opposing the Vietnam War, championing female clergy and supporting gays and lesbians in the church.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-allsaints16sep16,0,6898628.story?coll=la-home-local

[GCP]

1. Are they also investigating the wing-nut churches

That instructed their congregants to vote Republican - there must be a ratio of 1000:1 right wing:left wing church involvement in politics.

[peacetalksforall]

4. Can you imagine the IRS doing this to Robertson? Or maybe Ro

Robertson doesn't go near a church, just preaches from a tv statge?

[LTR]

18. Does Pat get tax breaks?

That's the question there.

[Copperred]

29. I believe he does....does anyone know???

Are not all the TV evangelists TAX free churches?


Anyone?

[KDLarsen]

40. Off the top of my head, I think he gave it up..

.. I think it came up in one of the threads during the '04 campaign, when churches were first being targetted about these kind of things. Apparently he decided to give up the tax freeness, so he could continue to spill his gut on TV.

[panader0]

6. Amen- when I read this my first response was, well, what you said

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. They may be doing a tit for tat.

One right-wing organization, one left-wing church:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2512058

[seriousstan]

33. Funny how everyone was all for the IRS investigating them.

I guess hypocrisy has no bounds.

[ananda]

21. No, they're not investigating the wingnut..

.. churches because BushInc is funding them.
Geez. He's put billions in faith based money
into cabinet offices from which funds are given
to religious groups.

[Kber]

2. This was inevitable.

As the current political powers have bedded down with one Christian sect, the persecution of other opposing sects and religions is the next logical step. Never mind that some Christians have preached peace, justice and care of the poor for far longer than we have existed as a country. Never mind that Falwell and his ilk have twisted the Christian message to achieve their own political power (in direct contradiction of the injunctions against worshiping false gods and taking the lord's name in vain).

Ugly.

[KoKo]

3. Fascists strike once again.........n/t

[rodeodance]

5. This pastor best get a good Constitutional lawyer

[Wiley50]

14. Selective Enforcement if they don't get the Evangelicals too n/t

[Copperred]

30. IF anyone can bring this country and the Christian Right 2 its knees....

........it should be the Episcopalians.

This is good news....the Christian Right government messing with the Episcopalian Church is the right idea. The Episcopoes as most of u know....kinda represent the old line Establisment in more ways than one...hopefully it wakes them up abit...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Episcopal_Church

[acmavm]

7. Then I suggest they go after the little Catholic church up the street, the

one associated with the Catholic school my son went to for one year. They were very forthright (both the church and the school) in telling people that they needed to vote for bush**.

My son told me his teacher told them all that if you didn't vote for bush** you would go to hell because Kerry was for abortion. Not only did I set my son straight on that one, I told him to tell his teacher to get into another line of work because she was too stupid to teach.

By the end of the year they truly hated me at that school. And they were so happy that my son wasn't going back.

[demosincebirth]

11. You should have told the teacher yourself.

[acmavm]

17. No. They were sending messages through the kids. It got her to stop

when she got the message that everytime she would feed my kid some propaganda, I'd tell him the truth. And then pass on a little propaganda of my own.

She never bugged Patrick again with her crap.

[mom cat]

8. The storm troopers are coming! What about all the right wing

political activity in churches! This is so pattently biased! K&R

[rodeodance]

9. Schiff-Dem, has a comment that bodes well for me:

.....Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), who unsuccessfully tried to launch a Government Accountability Office investigation into the IRS' probes of churches nationwide last year, called the summons "a very disturbing escalation" of the agency's scrutiny of All Saints.

"I don't want religious organizations to become arms of campaigns," he said. "But they should be able to talk about issues of war and peace without fear of losing tax-exempt status. If they can't, they'll have little to say from the pulpit."

The view was echoed by the Rev. Bob Edgar, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA. "I'm outraged," he said. "Preachers ought to have the liberty to speak truth to power."

"There is a lot more to be done about this, and it may include some actions of nonviolent civil disobedience," Edgar said. "Since 9/11, the IRS, like the FBI, has been moving back to the 1950s and 1960s when a great deal of such activity was propagated against church leaders like Martin Luther King."

[JerseygirlCT]

10. This is such a crock

Somewhere along the line I think I read the sermon in question. It was an anti-war sermon, to be sure.

This is purely political. This church is definitely liberal, and they're being targeted for that and only that.

We'll see how many churches in say, Ohio, are being looked at seriously.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Very disturbing! K&R

[nashville_brook]

13. first they come for the... episopalians...! KnR......!!

[nashville_brook]

16. ...and MEGAchurchs that tell you who to vote for... they're just "pious"

[SpiralHawk]

15. September 29 is Michaelmas

Archangel Michael going to smite the republicon christofascist ahrimanic chickenhawk thugees?



http://www.chiron-communications.com/michaelmas.html

[leesa]

20. So when do the thousands of giant right wing Christian Bush churches

get the same treatment?

[bluestateguy]

22. Perhaps the simple thing to do would be to make all churches pay taxes

This kind of selective enforcement only allows the IRS (under orders from the White House) to pick on the churches that they don't like.

[lynne]

23. What if it had been a Pro-War sermon on the eve of the election?

Would it have been proper for the IRS to investigate after that? I think we must apply the rules equally and just keep religion out of politics and politics out of religion all way around.

[Kagemusha]

24. If it's actually about being pro or anti war, that's absolutely protected.

If it's merely the subject used for a political endorsement, that would seem to be crossing the line... but I'm very sympathetic to the view that religious institutions should pay taxes. Since the Constitution banned states and the federal government from favoring one over another, Congress decided (once income tax came into play) that they should just favor ALL of them, categorically in the literal sense.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. This is crazy; the rules only say that you can't advocate for

specific candidates or parties, not that you can't advocate for issues.

If a church can't preach opposition to war, then all the Quakers and Mennonites are in big trouble.

This is especially infuriating because I know for a fact that the new-style Minnesota Republicanites (government-slashing, fetus-worshipping, gay-bashing ones, as opposed to the old-style reasonable folks) regularly speak in exurban fundie megachurches, even when they themselves are not adherents of those chruches.

[AndyTiedye]

26. Timed to Silence All the Liberal Churches During The Upcoming Campaign

The reich wing churches have a green light from the IRS, of course.

[Joe Bacon]

27. Rev. Bacon should tell the IRS to DROP DEAD!

The same IRS that lets churches off the hook when they worship a GOLDEN ELEPHANT!

[dailykoff]

28. First they came for the Moslems, but I was not a Moslem. . . .

this is really getting scary. :scared:

[Copperred]

31. Let's back the Episicopalians!!!!

To VOICE your support to the Episcopalian Church in Pasadena....call:

[phone]


To VOICE your support to the HQ of the Episopalians in New York....call:

[phone]

[ForPeace]

32. This is where I met Cindy

I'm firmly in the secular camp, but I did go to this church to see Cindy Sheehan and Michael Sheen. They were great. Cindy signed copies of her book afterward and she was so friendly and gracious - it was wonderful. This is the one church I fully approve of and so of course it would be the one the IRS go after. What's wrong with being anti-war anyway. What happened to "turn the other cheek". Seems to be a basic principle of Christianity. What do they want - only warmongering churches - oh - silly me!

[IndianaGreen]

34. This reminds of Nixon using the IRS to haunt his enemies

I don't see the IRS doing this same extensive investigation of all the rightwing religious groups, including James Dobson's Focus on the family.

[stepnw1f]

36. Ding, Ding, Ding....

There are plenty of right wing churches to go after, but noooo.... go after a liberal church.

Oh and .... JESUS WAS A LIBERAL. Suck on that twisted right winger.

[seriousstan]

35. Seperation of church and state, be careful what you ask for.

[rocktivity]

37. I can think of only one reason why the Pope hasn't spoken out about this

He's been too distracted by the scandal he caused with his remarks about Muslims!

rocknation
:wow:

[Copperred]

38. I would think they are tracking it closely........

and probably in contact with the Episcopalian head Bishop. Everyone should tell their churches to call the Episcopalian Bishop in NY and tell them we will all line up behind them to fight this one to the finish.

This is the perfect opportunity...if spun upside down....

[nealmhughes]

39. The Presiding Bishop is technically in DC, but most stuff is in NYC.

The Presiding Bishop is really only in charge of issuing churchwide statements and only serves a 9 year term and is also in charge of missions. The local bishop would be the one to contact. There are a lot of bishops in NY! 2 or 3 just for Long Island alone!
Believe me, not only the local Bishop in Pasadena will support him, but at the national level, and in Canterbury, also. I'm pretty sure the UMC, the ECLA, and a whole lot of other churches will back anything the IRS tries to make out of this at the local and international level.

Imagine the next time Daddy Bush goes to church (he used to be on the vestry at Kennebunk) and the headlines say "Former president takes communion at church his leadership says is being prosecuted for protesting war by IRS" or the like... Or Bush himself gets the Bad Boy lecture from the UMC when he goes to the rail the next Sunday...