We read:
"The IRS wants to strike the fear of God into priests, ministers and rabbis who venture too far into politics and activism. In a Feb. 24 speech to the City Club of Cleveland, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson announced that nearly three-quarters of the 82 churches and charities that the IRS investigated recently for alleged political and electoral improprieties turned out, in the IRS' view, to be violators. Among the 'offenses': Allowing candidates to speak on church premises, preachers delivering remarks from the pulpit interpreted to endorse candidates and the posting of Web links to the Web sites of candidates for office....
In November, there emerged clear signs that the IRS is considering doing more. The Rev. J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., discovered he was the target of IRS ire for a fiery sermon he delivered before the 2004 president election which implied endorsement of John Kerry. The sermon, titled "If Jesus debated Sen. Kerry and President Bush," provoked an IRS threat against the church's tax-exempt status. This was an egregious case of sermon-policing...."
Source
Sermon-policing?? What has the Great Republic come to? It sounds more like a totalitarian State.
Churches must of course obey the law but, as the IRS itself admits, the law is vague about what is permitted and what is not. One would hope that the IRS would use its resources to concentrate on real tax dodgers rather than this nonsense. Churches have always had great influence on society and have been behind many great movements. To muzzle them would be a huge loss to society.
