How's this for chutzpah? Right-wingers are filing complaints against liberal churches with the IRS!
Today, the LA Times (picked up by the AP) reports that liberal All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena -- one of the biggest progressive congregations in California -- could lose its tax-exempt status.
The LATimes dutifully finds a quote dismissing the obvious suspicion: '"I doubt it's politically motivated," [tax attorney] Owens said.'
That's the IRS he's talking about. And I believe him: It's not the IRS that initiated this. Their investigations are complaint generated. So that's a key component of the story that the LATimes failed to report: This all started when someone complained. About an anti-war sermon.
Should we turn the other cheek?
Read on for another idea, after the jump.
In the face of systematic organizing in churches by the GOP, we have to take away the big lesson from this. And it's not that the IRS is picking on us. No, it's that two can play this game -- and we have a lot more ammunition than they do.
It's time for us to complain as loudly, and as longly, in as many numbers as we can muster.
The Times story makes it perfectly clear how this all got started:
Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning
All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena risks losing its tax-exempt status because of a former rector's remarks in 2004.
By Patricia Ward Biederman and Jason Felch, Times Staff Writers
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."...
There you have the facts: The preacher did not endorse a candidate, nor exhort the congregation to vote for one. But the sermon was reported in the LATimes.
And that, no doubt, is what led to the IRS investigation. Not because the IRS scours the paper for churches to bedevil, but rather because some right-winger used the newspaper clipping to buttress his complaint to the IRS.
It's that simple. Once a complaint is logged, along with credible supporting documentation, the IRS is required to follow through.
So let's do the same to them.
Here's how it works. The IRS site has aFAQabout tax-exempt organizations and their political activities:
Tax-Exempt Organizations and Political Activities
FS-2004-14, October 2004
Under law, tax-exempt organizations described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code are prohibited from participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office. Charities, educational institutions and religious organizations, including churches, are among those that are covered under this code section.
These organizations cannot endorse any candidates, make donations to their campaigns, engage in fund raising, distribute statements, or become involved in any other activities that may be beneficial or detrimental to any particular candidate. Even activities that encourage people to vote for or against a particular candidate on the basis of nonpartisan criteria violate the political campaign prohibition of section 501(c)(3)....
So let's get out there and generate some complaints about Pat Robertson and Falwell and Hinn and all the other creeply fundamentalists who are doing Rove's bidding.
Here's how, according to the IRS:
If you believe that the activities or operations of a tax-exempt organization are inconsistent with its tax-exempt status,
you may file a complaint with the Exempt Organizations Examination Division, 1100 Commerce Street, ATTN: SE:T:EO:E, Dallas, TX 75242. The complaint should contain all relevant facts concerning the alleged violation of tax law.
The IRS cannot advise you of any action it has taken or may take in response to a complaint. The confidentiality and disclosure provisions of the Internal Revenue Code preclude the Service from discussing matters relating to any activity it might undertake regarding the tax-exempt status of an entity with anyone other than the principal officers or authorized representatives of that entity. These provisions were enacted by Congress to protect the privacy of all taxpayers.
The IRS maintains an active examination program to ensure that tax-exempt organizations, as well as taxpayers, meet the requirements imposed on them by the Internal Revenue Code.
Please join me in lodging formal complaints against right-wing congregations who do political work. Gather a little documentation and write the IRS: It's that simple!