Other Columns by Paul M. Weyrich
Paul M. Weyrich Bio

Printer-Friendly Version

The scene was at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California on the Sunday before the presidential election. Reverend George F. Regas preached a sermon entitled, "If Jesus debated Senator Kerry and President Bush." Father Regas, it would seem, gave the debate to Senator John F. Kerry (D-MA) because in that priest's view Kerry's views were more in line with those of Jesus Christ than were those of the President.

Someone complained to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the IRS has threatened to take away the tax- exempt status of All Saints based upon that sermon. The Internal Revenue code states that section 50l(c)(3) organizations (such as a church) are "prohibited from participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of, or opposition to, any candidate."

After years of ignoring blatantly partisan sermons by the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. and the Reverend Al Sharpton and their followers (both men having run for President) in independent and Black Baptist Churches all over America, and after ignoring collections taken up in Greek Orthodox Churches on behalf of Presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis, IRS is targeting religion over a single sermon which began with a partisan disclaimer on a single Sunday.

All Saints' Rector, Reverend J. Edward Bacon, put it this way: "If the IRS interpretation stands, that means that a preacher cannot speak boldly about the core values about his or her faith community without fear of government recrimination." Well put.

If, upon hearing about this case, you think that IRS should crack down on these liberal churches, think again. IRS traditionally has recognized churches as being off limits. The IRS position has included churches in which the civil rights movement, under the tutelage of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., gained legitimacy. Yes, churches in this country have a long political tradition - the Revolution, the abolitionist movement, the Anti-Viet Nam War movement. Likewise, the long-sought reaction to decades of liberalism which brought about groups, such as the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition, began in the churches.

I believe IRS deliberately chose this liberal church to begin an unprecedented investigation of the content of a sermon because IRS expected conservatives silently or overtly to applaud so that when the investigations begin of conservative churches we could have little about which to complain. Yes, IRS did close a fundamentalist Indianapolis church some years back but that was for a different reason - refusal to pay payroll taxes. The church had many opportunities to change its policy. It refused. IRS moved in. Since most churches have employees for whom they pay payroll taxes there was little protest, and probably no basis for protest, over that IRS action.

The IRS proceeding against All Saints is different. Father Bacon stated in a Fox News interview, "The IRS is arguing that they can investigate a church based on a field officer's subjective determination that a preacher's sermon implicitly opposes or endorses candidates, regardless of the explicit statements of the preacher."

>> Continued -- Page 1 2