A Stitch in Haste

An update to my previous post about an illegal and un-Christian stunt being planned by the theocrats at the Alliance Defense Fund:

Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules.

The effort by the Arizona-based legal consortium is designed to trigger an IRS investigation that ADF lawyers would then challenge in federal court. The ultimate goal is to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship.

This part is not new news. And as I noted previously, there is of course no “ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship.” There is a condition on all tax-exempt institutions that they refrain form endorsing candidates (not issues) if they wish to continue to enjoy tax-exempt status.

Contrary to the lies of the ADF, this is in no way a “church and state issue.” There is no such thing as a First Amendment “right to a tax break.”

No amount of common sense or objective reasoning can be expected to have an impact on such zealots. They are not motivated by any true call to civil disobedience, as they preposterously portray themselves as undertaking. They are engaging in insolent theatrics to score political points. In God’s name.

The only recourse, therefore, is to throw God right back in their faces:

Yet an opposing collection of Christian and Jewish clergy will petition the IRS today to stop the protest before it starts, calling the ADF’s “Pulpit Initiative” an assault on the rule of law and the separation of church and state.

Backed by three former top IRS officials, the group also wants the IRS to determine whether the nonprofit ADF is risking its own tax-exempt status by organizing an “inappropriate, unethical and illegal” series of political endorsements.

“As religious leaders, we have grave concerns about the ethical implications of soliciting and organizing churches to violate core principles of our society,” the clergy wrote in an advance copy of their claim obtained by The Washington Post.

At last count, the coalition of anti-ADF clergy had at least 45 members in Ohio alone.

Will the “counter-clergy” appeal, or the reminder of the implications of intentionally violating the tax law, have an impact? One early data point suggests the answer is “yes” —

The Rev. Rod Parsley’s 12,000-member World Harvest Church in Columbus won’t be participating, said Debbie Stacy, director of Parsley’s Center for Moral Clarity.

That’s probably because the World Harvest Church received a dose of “moral clarity” after it had previous run-ins with the IRS, and now understands exactly what the law is and what is at stake should they violate it. (Parlsley, you may recall, was one of the two theocrats shunned by John McCain; John Hagee was the other.)

(Via Americans United.)

Previously:
–Theocrat Clerics to Stage Frivolous Tax Protest Stunt
–Render What Unto Whom?
–CRS Recommendation: Political Activity by Tax-Exempt Institutions

Filed under: First Amendment - Religion, Law, Politics, Taxation & Fiscal Policy