The odd details of the IRS’s latest church investigation
Federal tax law, as it relates to tax-exempt religious ministries, is pretty clear — houses of worship may not legally intervene in political campaigns, either in support of or opposition to a candidate or a party. Those who violate the law run the risk of losing their tax-exempt status.
What’s less clear is why the IRS has decided to launch this specific investigation. The closer one looks, the more unusual this appears.
The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the United Church of Christ, saying the denomination may have threatened its tax-free status by allowing Sen. Barack Obama to speak before thousands of members at a church conference in June.
A lawyer for the church denied that the denomination, or Sen. Obama, who is a UCC member, engaged in any political activity when he and others spoke before an audience of 10,000 at the church’s 50th anniversary celebration in Hartford, Conn.
A spokesman for the Obama campaign, Tommy Vietor, said the candidate “spoke to his church’s convention about his personal spiritual journey…. This was not a campaign event.”
While investigations of individual congregations are not uncommon, for the IRS to go after an entire 1.2 million-member denomination is rather extraordinary.
Indeed, for the IRS to take such an unusual step, one might assume that the UCC’s conduct must have been extraordinarily controversial. But therein lies the rub: by all appearances, the UCC didn’t come close to running afoul of tax law.
Remember, the law says a ministry can’t “intervene” in a campaign. So, what happened in this case? The United Church of Christ, like many Protestant denominations, held an annual meeting. The UCC invited Obama, the Christian church’s most high-profile member, to speak about his perspective on the role of faith in public life, which he did.
Did Obama use his appearance as a campaign event? No. Did UCC officials use the opportunity to endorse his campaign? No. Did anything happen at the conference that amounted to “intervention” in a political campaign? Not as far as I can tell.
What we’re left with is an awkward set of circumstances — in an election year, the Bush administration’s IRS is investigating a liberal denomination for allowing the Democratic frontrunner to give a non-partisan speech. I’m hesitant to jump to the disconcerting conclusion — this investigation is politically motivated and intended to intimidate left-leaning religious leaders — but the evidence against the UCC in this matter is so thin, it’s hard not to question what prompted this investigation.
What’s worse, it wouldn’t be the first time questions very similar to these have come up.
It would be an outrageous abuse of power for the IRS to go after an entire religious denomination based on partisan political concerns, but given what we’ve seen of the Bush gang, it’s hard to offer the administration much in the way of benefit of the doubt.
During Watergate, we learned that Nixon used the IRS to harass and intimidate political opponents. Let’s hope this isn’t a repeat of the same abuse.
* Post Script: If the IRS is prepared to argue that the UCC may have violated the law simply by giving Obama a platform for a non-partisan speech, should we also assume, then, that the agency will investigate the Southern Baptist Convention for inviting George W. Bush to give a non-partisan speech? That, in effect, is the argument here.
There is nothing wrong here. All you need to do is look at the specific IRS regulations under the heading IOKIYAR.
This is actually terrific news for the Obama campaign.
It inserts the fact of his Christian faith directly into the narrative of the campaign, and will help dispel the myth that he’s a scary scary Muslim. His talking about his spiritual journey will neutralize some of the attacks of the Religious Right (as they did on Kerry). And the fact that the IRS is clearly overreaching only makes the Republicans look worse.
The Obama folks should try to keep this in the news for weeks.
Since when does the IRS work so fast? Is it the desperation of the Hillary Clinton to Smear -your -opponent- Campaign ridiing yet again.? Or is it the right Wing / RNC hypocrisy reigning supreme?
If the IRS is so all-fired concerned about churches not being involved in polotical behavior, then where are the investigations of all of the right wing republican supporting churches who tell their congregations who to vote for, from the pulpit? Yo can’t just pick on UCC over this issue if you ignore all of the other clearly documented cases of even more egregeous cases of politicization in churches.
If all they look at is this case with the UCC, then it is clerly a politically motivated effort at intimidation.
Please, explain to me why the Bush administration has not been evicted yet? They keep running roughshod over laws and the Constitution, and nobody holds them accountable? Like spoiled children, if nobody punishes them, they just keep on doing anything they please. Please, spank the bad people, and put them out of office without any supper.
Let’s hope this isn’t a repeat of the same abuse.
CB, you are hopelesly naive if you think this isn’t more of the same crap that the Bush administration has been dishing out for eight years. Obama becomes the frontrunner and his church gets investigated by the IRS. Duh.
According to this AP story on the ABC news site, these sorts of investigations can take years. Given that the church is so closely linked to the likely presidential nominee, the IRS could have postponed the investigation after the election. The IRS could also, in the interest of fairness, resolve the issue quickly but it won’t.
Revoke the tax exampt status of ALL churches.
Ah yes, the Internal Revenue Service, that fine organization that has never, ever gone after anyone who wasn’t guilty of serious violations of the tax code. These are Federal Employees we’re talking about, folks who always follow the law and never let their political bosses corrupt the system.
Except for:
all the civil rights supporters in the 1960s
all the antiwar folks (like me) in the 1960s-70s
Ah yes, folks with small incomes need to have full-scale audits every three years, just to keep them on their toes and prove how neutral the system is.
/snark
Do the words “Don Siegelman” mean anything to you?
Our own money being used against us to stifle dissent and liberty . We’re paying for our own slavery !
God is a Republican.
So the IRS will look at Pat Robertson and James Dobson next? Yup ….. any day now ….
Great thought TR, but someone in the media will do an expose on whether the United Church of Christ is operating madrassas, I’m sure of it.
The appropriate Congressional committee needs to haul the head of the I.R.S. and the person who signed the letter to the UCC up to Capital Hill and demand to know why this particular denomination was targeted and why the I.R.S.’s actions in this case are so different from their usual proceedures. If they balk at appearing, subpoena their asses.
This kind of crap is going to continue non-stop through November unless the Democrats grow a spine and fight back. And Congressional oversight is the only weapon they have.
#6 Nope. Just the ones that break the law.
If the IRS is going to pull this foolishness (ie witch hunt) on the UCC (BTW one of the most liberal Christian denominations out there), then they need to go after all of the churches where candidates have spoken… candidates of all parties.
SteveT,
I believe that would fall to Ways and Means which is helmed by Chuck Rangel, so there is actually a chance that might happen.
Of course, Pelosi would table it and say it’s not an option.
I’m with TR on this. This is great news for Obama. The more people hear about his religion being under attack, the more people will side with him and the more he gets to talk about it without sounding like he’s rubbing it in anyone’s face.
As I keep saying, I have no idea why anyone imagines that rightwing attacks are particularly effective, but they rarely are. One of the most unfairly smeared presidents of all time won re-election, could have won a third term, and is widely seen as one of the most popular presidents ever. We need to get out of the idea that it matters what wingnuts think. They’re crazy. It’s only the non-crazies we need to be concerned with, and they’re usually repelled by this kind of thing. That’s why Bush ran as a moderate in 2000; America really isn’t conservative.
Nope, but I’m sure the UCC expose will end with a definitive “We are unable to prove conclusively that the United Church of Christ is not, in fact, an undercover bed of Islamofascist extremism. In other news … Pat Robertson: Super-Awesome or merely Awesome?”
So…they will be applying an equal standard to all those churches where Huckabee appeared, right?
I still think getting the basic fact out that Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ is a net win, period.
They’ll trash it as a liberal church, a black church, etc. etc., but the fact that Obama gets identified repeatedly as a Christian will effectively push back against the biggest smear against him, that he’s an awful scary Muslim.
And the fact that this is revealed through the IRS attack — and not, like John Kerry trying to belatedly foreground his Catholicism — will only underscore the sincerity.
As a follow-up to my last post, I think the mistake Republicans make is that nasty smears only work in a focused setting, like smaller elections. It’s much easier to go balls-out with a crazy smear in a Congressional district deep in the heart of Georgia than something that people will listen to nationwide. And even still, with bloggers out there ready to spread the word on every smear, it’s hard for them to get away with anything. Ask Macaca Allen. Even friendly words in a small group setting in rural Virginia can suddenly end up on national TV. The art of the crazy smear has definitely gotten harder.
I didnt know they allowed MUSLIM, Kufi wearing, latte sipping, Pakistan bombing, speechifying, Farrakhan loving liberals to speak at houses of worship
What has the country come to.
PuhLeeze Mike Huckabee has preached at so many churches during this camapign he might as well be running for Reverand In Chief. This is such a politically motivated investigation it is ridiculous
I hope it gets played out so it will highlight the levels the adminstration will stoop to quash political opponents and allow the American people to find out once and for all that Obama is a Christian candiate(not that that matters)
I agree 100% with TR. A clear case of “any press is good press” if it underscores Obama’s Christianity.
A poor reflection on the IRS probably never hurt anyone either…
Once again the “government” is guilty of sticking their noses places they do not belong. While I do not see myself voting for Obama, he should not be treated in different than, let’s say, Pat Buchanan, when he ran. I do not for second he did not use his church and it’s followers to get his word out. IRS and the rest looked the other way, why? Could it be, they saw him as a NO CHANCE canididate! No one seems to mind George talking about his moral values. I realize he is already elected, but that does not give his church the right to be pushing their believes on the public.
Don’t forget that mega-Church in Nashvegas and their “Justice Sundays”. Nationally televised event in which EVERY Republican who ever thought about running for office gave speeches against nasty-Godless liberals not allowing Bush to get his right-wing Supreme and Federal Court freak on. But no, that wasn’t political, at all.
ml @3… What does Clinton have to do with the IRS? O-o
Correction: the United Church of Christ is not a “black church,” although there are predominantly black congregations in the conference. It may be remembered that the UCC featured a photo gallery of Sponge Bob’s visit to the conference headquarters in Cleveland on its web-site a few years ago. It made some bigger headlines when CBS refused to run the Church’s paid ads (the “bouncer” ads) with the message that the denomination’s welcomes everyone into its congregations as too controversial.
It’s also interesting that one of the smears against Obama being circulated in the South is that he belongs to the Church of Christ, a small, very fundamentalist denomination known for some pretty extreme views. That denomination has NO connection to the United Church of Christ, which has been correctly described here as one of the most liberal Protestant Christian denominations.
Of course, Pelosi would table it and say it’s not an option.
Too bad Pelosi is tabularly challenged. Shame for (and on) our entire country. But I stand by my idea that everyone of our elected officials have been PAA (Water) gated. There’s no reason to spy on you and me…they have their spying facility in San Fran, Pelosi was on their radar, they scored, and that is why she now can’t (or won’t) find that table.
No one is squeeky clean, but when you’re running for elected official, you apparently have to be. They have the goods on her and everyone else. And, hence, we are screwed.
Oh, and if churches want to participate in government, they should start by paying taxes.
Well, obviously the IRS is against the UCC because it allows homosecsuals in. Any so-called church that refuses to kick out gay people is either Satanist or a phony “church” just looking for the tax exemption.
Everyone knows that the Bible call for shunning gay people, and you can’t be a “church” unless you believe in the literal nature of the Bible. It is the Word of God, after all.
Might as well go right after the Buddhists, the Hindi, the Scientologists and all those other phony churches, too. Well, maybe not the Scientologists, cuz they know how to fight back, and fight back dirty. And I think the IRS already lost their case against them. But all the others? Fair game, I say.
Thank you lib4! I’m still laughing…, or am I crying…?
Friends,
It has become clear that the IRS complaint against the United Church of Christ is the work of a waggish, negative website operated by a disgruntled former United Church of Christ member named James Hutchens. Hutchens has long been a regular poster under his own name and various pseudonyms at the discussion boards at UCC.org. A few years ago he began to blog incessantly on his own website UCCTruths.blogspot.com.
I urge you not to go to the website the same way I would encourage anyone I care about not to dive into a pool of liquid fertilizer. However, a link to a pdf file containing the original IRS complaint that was filed back in August appears on the website’s front page!
For the sake of truth and justice, I would encourage you to forward this to three to five people. The truth needs to get out there.
Thanks,
Jeff Johnston
a concerned UCC pastor from Illinois
Now here’s some real use of the church venue for politickin’ in Cleveland yesterday.
From the NYT today (2/28/08)
“Laura Richardson, a black freshman congresswoman from California who was unapologetic about her support for Mrs. Clinton.
“People need to hear that it’s O.K. to choose the best-qualified person,” she said, “and that they don’t have to feel ashamed or be guilty about that.”
With that in mind, she breezed into Sanctuary Baptist Church here on Sunday, Bible in hand, and stood in front of 100 parishioners. She spoke of Mrs. Clinton’s credentials, the importance of ending the war in Iraq and the urgency of electing a president who “doesn’t need a couple of years getting up to speed.”
The crowd appeared unmoved.
Then, as the tease of an organ signified that it was time to wrap up, Ms. Richardson made a final appeal.
“I’m going to challenge you to go home and pray about it, and ask God who would be best for us at this time,” she said. “Let’s trust God to lead us to who that person should be.”
Seems to be another case of the Bush/HRC “have your cake and eat it too”
You can read the actual complaint submitted to the IRS here: http://www.ucctruths.com/irs.pdf
The specific allegations revolve around the three main criteria established by the IRS which are pretty simple to understand: If you are going to have a candidate speak as a non-candidate, the church cannot make a reference to their candidacy in any way, the candidate cannot mention they are a candidate and there can be no campaigning related to the speech – all of which happened in this instance and all of which are well documented in the complaint to the IRS. The UCC web site had numerous references to Obama being a candidate leading up to his appearence, the speech included references to his candidacy and there was active campaigning with 40 volunteers at the entrance to the Hartford Civic Center before, during and after his speech. Following his speech, the campaign volunteers were led into the Civic Center so they could get pictures with Obama. To make matters worse, UCC leaders should have known the content of Obama’s speech since he gave nearly the same speech a week earlier to the Iowa Conference of the UCC.
If Barack Obama is not allowed to speak to his own congregation then we have no freedom of worship, let alone freedom of speech. There was no one at the ballot at the time.
This incident suggests that the democrats have a huge task cleaning out the republican agitators and sleepers who have been planted in the government these past 8 years. They don’t knwo the Constitution they don’t know the law. They only know their part and presumably believe there is only on way to follow god and the UCC does provide it.
Next press conference someone should ask about this to the President.
Drew @ 31:
That is a complaint. The IRS has not stated what motivated this investigation and what violations they are investigating. There’s no evidence to suggest the complaint you cited is the cause of the investigation. Here’s the letter from the IRS to the UCC:
http://www.ucc.org/news/pdf/lettrirs.pdf
And “UCCtruths” looks like an agenda-driven site run by fundamentalists looking to splinter mainline churches such as the UCC, one reason being the UCC’s acceptance of same-sex marriage in certain congregations. So any claims made by UCCtruths, including claims made about involvement in this investigation, is suspect.
The fact is it is unknown what the IRS intends on investigating here. The IRS should show the specific charges and the specific evidence against the UCC and Obama so that it can be vetted publicly. Otherwise this is just another example of Republicans politicizing government agencies for party gain.
The IRS are now partisan corrupt motherfuckers. They persecute the poor and let the rich go free. They only investigate churches when they are left-leaning, and never ever ever when they are Talibanesque fuckers.
The entire agency should be bulldozed under so we can start over.
As a member of the United Church of Christ for all of my adult life, this is really disheartening. Our church is not necessarily liberal but defining it as on of the more liberal institutions is probably still accurate. If religious zealots would have you believe that Jesus was a conservative, we would beg to differ. Why do the conservatives continue to shun the poor and help the wealthy? Obviously not what Jesus taught. Do they love their neighbor as they do themselves?
The United Chusrch of Christ is liberal only because it accepts all people to worship in their church, including gays and people of all nationalities. It is not a mission of exclusion but of inclusion, they stand by the belief that ALL are welcome. Other than that it is not a lot different than other churches.
I agree that this investigation is political and that it will help Obama rise above the rest as he continues to do with other unfounded accusations.
WHAT is the IRS Investigation outcome of Pastor Mac Hammond at the LIving Word Community Church In Minnesota politicking from the pulpit for Michele Bachmann (Hot lips at the SOTU for Bush, the NEW Katherine Harris)? He told his congregation he was going to vote for her and they should too. He didn’t even live in her District MN 6! SEEING IS BELIEVING!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If6ScJ-7MWs
Contact Congressman Grassley and ask, he is aware of the investigation and recent abuses of a “church stunt plane” (Who could make this up?) by Pastor Mac. The plane is now reportedly up for sale. Amen…
#6 & #13 –
If religious insitutions continue to have tax exempt status, there will continue to be violations and allegations, often pursued or ignored for partisan interest.
If some religious institutions retain tax-exempt status and some do not, the same will occur, but on a vastly larger scale, and with huge fallout.
If no religious institutions retain tax-exempt status, they can have whatever political candidates they like say whatever floats their respective boats.
The tax exempt status is a holdover from a period before instant nationwide media, and no longer makes sense as candidates can, do, and will use religious institutions to deliver their political messages.
As some have pointed out, even the fact that Sen. Obama appeared in front of a Christian congregation, even if he only talked about the weather, would convey a political message.
The UCC is kind of different from other churches in that the actual congregations are much more autonomous then in most religious denominations.
The liberal congregations do outweigh the more conservative but UCC congregations set their own missions and some are much more liberal, or afro- centric, or inclusionary then others
Will the IRS investigate televangelist John Hagee and his Cornerstone Church for publicly supporting McCain? How do they get away with this stuff?
It is this president that has a problem with Barry Bonds success in baseball.
Call it a player hater.
Oh , I thought the subject was Barry Bonds. Same problem; Player hating (Obama) These guys are making positive history. Negative history? Bush/Clinton/McCain. Barry has just pissed them off by beating Hank’s record. History.
IIRC, in 2004 the GOP and a particular church held a meeting/sermon to specifically talk about the voting process in Congress. Church members were decrying Democrats now allowing an “up or down vote” on Bush’s nominees. (Of course, the GOP only wants these up or down votes when it suits them, otherwise they do the same things.)
Boy, the IRS sure wasn’t quick to act on that one. I guess justice is only swift when there’s a partisan profit to it…
I’m a church-state-separation purist — to such an extent that I oppose tax exemptions for religious organizations (including my own church!).
Aside from that, the IRS regs are fine. And I realize that the IRS can’t nab every rulebreaker, but hopes/wants to remind people of the regs by making “examples”; and that it doesn’t peep into every house of worship, but often relies on news stories and complaints.
But either the regs aren’t fairly applied, or they’re applied so randomly that they appear “political,” because:
– conservative churches didn’t catch flak for their partisan voter guides, events, and pulpiteering in 2000 and ’04; but a high-visibility liberal church in L.A. got IRS-probed after an “antiwar” sermon in ’04.
– if candidates can’t speak nonpartisanly to denominations: Why didn’t the Southern Baptist Conference get nabbed for Bush’s SBC convention speech?
– it’s also bizarre that the Rev. Mike Huckabee hasn’t caught IRS flak for giving church sermons on the campaign trail (not-unintentionally blurring the distinction between candidate and “church authority figure”). And due to loopholes, he went flak-free for raising $1 million at a fundraiser (a) in a televangelist-friend’s church, although (b) the fundraiser was, “coincidentally,” held during a large clergy conference; the church’s TV show featured Huckabee five times in one month; and the church was/is a target of the Senate “flock-fleecing” investigation.
This inconsistency doesn’t promote adherence to regs (since it defines adherence so randomly); and the only example it provides is, “We’re watching Some, but not Others.”
Aside from appearing partisan: It almost looks like an attempt to aggravate liberal churches, in the hope that they’ll join the Right’s push to repeal church-state separation and the church-politicking ban.
[Addendum: The UCC says it invited Obama before he was a candidate, and that he was one of many speakers, on a roster that included Lynn Redgrave and Bill Moyers. The IRS also claimed that Obama staffers campaigned onsite. The UCC denies this, and I believe the denial: the UCC is near-famous for its support of church-state separation and its opposition to church politicking, and it does *not* play games about this stuff.]
Is the IRS really so desperate that it chooses to challenge a denomination which has roots in Pilgrim forebearers who once sought to be free from the heavy hand of a monarch? You’ve got to be kidding! Funny, I was at that convention, I heard the speech and can’t remember anything resembling a hint of political campaigning but the “testimony (in church terms)” of one of our own. I’m proudly UCC, a military chaplain, and I support my church in its defense of these adolescent attacks against a religious body’s constitutional rights to free speech, religious expression, and right to assemble as it deems fit. I’ll be damned if I allow the IRS to intimidate me or my brothers and sisters. If it does this with the UCC it’ll do it with the Southern Baptist Convention and every church, college, or religious group in America. I’ll join the fight to the end. Shame on you IRS! Viva the UCC!
Jeff Johnston of Morton IL Community United Church of Christ should relax, have another cheeseburger and quit blindly defending the United Church of Christ. How smart is he to tell you not to visit a web site but then list the URL? Sounds like he might be working for UCCtruths.
Our pastor atttended the conference in Hartford. He noted that in addition to Sen. Obama, speakers included Lynne Redgrave and Bill Moyers. He noted the Senator’s remarks did not concern politics.
He did state there were some campaign tables but they were well outside the conference facilities and were on public sidewalks.
This would all seem to be well outside the IRS scrutiny.
As tax time does draw near for many Americans, these controversies are also reminiscent of Christ’s Tax Return itself as noted by that First Century CPA Saint Matthew, in The Gospel According to Saint Matthew 17:24-27 .
‘… “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes – ”from their own sons or from others?”
“From others,” Peter answered.’
Peter and Jesus had to go fishing for their tax money.
Maybe this time it is the IRS which has nothing to do but fish.
🙂