Below the fold you will find a copy of the lovely email I received today from Ed Bacon, the current rector at
All Saints Church in Pasadena, CA that has drawn the ire of the Bush Administration and the IRS for their opposition to the Iraq War and a sermon given by their former rector before the 2004 election.
You'll find all the contact info for their legal defense fund beyond the fold.
Dear Friends:
On behalf of all of us at All Saints Church, Pasadena, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for your affirmation and support. The positive response of the public to the IRS investigating us has been stunning and quite empowering. In time, I hope to write each of you personally. Until that occurs I want you to know of our appreciation for your solidarity. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.
Many of you have asked how you can help. At this point we have excellent legal representation. We are expertly defended by Caplin and Drysdale in Washington, D.C. However, financial assistance with our legal fees would be extremely helpful and very much appreciated. You may send contributions to:
All Saints Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101.
Please make checks payable to All Saints Church, and write "Legal Defense Fund" in the memo section. One additional way you can help is by becoming a pledging member of All Saints Church. You can find information about this on our web site at www.allsaints-pas.org.
It is also important that you write opinion-editorial pieces for your local newspapers as well as letters to the editor. It is very important for you to send to us copies of your letters and other public writings.
This IRS action endangers principles of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The IRS's current position is that they can investigate a church based on an IRS field officers' subjective determination that a preacher's sermon implicitly opposes or endorses candidates, regardless of the explicit statements of the preacher. This means that any sermon which states a church's core values, when proclaimed during an election season, can be deemed to be an infringement of the IRS regulations. What is even more chilling is that a pastor cannot preach about the value of promoting peace simply because the nation happens to be at war during an election season.
The effect of such a position is to invite the government into the pulpits of America with a direct and heavy-handed call to reverse a 3,000 year old prophetic vocation to speak truth to power.
We will try to keep you abreast of our work and the developments of our case through our web site.
Thank you again for your support.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Ed Bacon
Rector
All Saints Church