The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon two days before the 2004 presidential election.
Rector J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena told many congregants during morning services Sunday that a guest sermon by the church's former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, on Oct. 31, 2004, had prompted a letter from the IRS.
In his sermon, Regas, who from the pulpit opposed both the Vietnam War and 1991's Gulf War, imagined Jesus participating in a political debate with then-candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas said that “good people of profound faith” could vote for either man, and did not tell parishioners whom to support.
But he criticized the war in Iraq, saying that Jesus would have told Bush, “Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine. Forcibly changing the regime of an enemy that posed no imminent threat has led to disaster.”
On June 9, the church received a letter from the IRS stating that “a reasonable belief exists that you may not be tax-exempt as a church … ” The federal tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from intervening in political campaigns and elections.
That last sentence is one of many reasons why I feel that churches should be taxed. They are for-profit organizations (why else would preachers and the like be living so high on the hog?). They involve themselves in all things political — elections, debates, development and interpretation of law, et al. While they could file to exempt whatever funds are used for charitable purposes, everything else, including the income of anyone who makes money from religion, should be taxed. This is only fair.
In the meantime, if the IRS is going to go after someone who spoke out against the war, they should also go after every other clergyman who has publicly spoken about gay marriage, gay rights, the war, political candidates, foreign heads of state (especially if they were calling for an assassination, right Pat Robertson?), those who deny communion to political candidates because of their views, and every other church leader who has in any way voiced any public opinion on matters of government.
No one will be less surprised than I if this in fact does not happen. The IRS is only enforcing the law against those who speak out against the Bush régime.