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Title: Pastors Guiding Voters to GOP
Source:
The Los Angeles Times
URL Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw ... 5.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Published: Oct 1, 2006
Author: Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer
Post Date: 2006-10-01 14:22:38 by robin
Keywords: None
Views: 125
Comments: 6
Pastors Guiding Voters to GOP The Christian right seeks out members who might not go to the polls. The focus is issues, but some leaders don't oppose endorsement. By Stephanie Simon October 1, 2006 With a pivotal election five weeks away, leaders on the religious right have launched an all-out drive to get Christians from pew to voting booth. Their target: the nearly 30 million Americans who attend church at least once a week but did not vote in 2004. Their efforts at times push legal limits on church involvement in partisan campaigns. That is by design. With control of Congress at stake Nov. 7, those guiding the movement say they owe it to God and to their own moral principles to do everything they can to keep social conservatives in power. Preachers "ought to put their toe right on the line," said Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit law firm that supports conservative Christian causes. The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical in Texas, has recruited 5,000 "patriot pastors" nationwide to promote an agenda that aligns neatly with Republican platforms. "We urge them to avoid legal entanglement, but there are times in a pastor's life when he needs to take a biblical stand," Scarborough said. "Our higher calling is to Christ." The campaign encourages individual pastors to use sermons, Bible studies and rallies to drive Christians to the polls — and, by implication or outright endorsement, to Republican candidates. One online guide to discussing the election in church, produced by the Focus on the Family ministry, offers this tip: If a congregant says her top concerns are healthcare and national security, suggest that Jesus would make abortion and gay marriage priorities. At a recent rally in Pennsylvania, Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson told a crowd of 3,000 that it would be "downright frightening" if Republicans lost control of Congress. If there's a good Christian on the ballot, he said, failing to vote "would be a sin." The law restricting political activity of churches and charities dates to 1954, when then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson pushed it through in a pique of anger over a nonprofit's effort to derail his reelection. Tax-exempt organizations, including churches, may not participate or intervene in political campaigns on behalf of any candidate. Intervention is broadly defined as "any and all activities that favor or oppose one or more candidate for public office," according to the Internal Revenue Service. That sounds straightforward. In practice, though, there are many ways around the restriction, as the faithful recognize. "If the pastor is doing the right job, the people will automatically vote for the right person," said Gale Wollenberg, who belongs to a conservative evangelical church in Topeka, Kan. Perhaps the biggest loophole is that churches can campaign on policy issues — even if that effort benefits a particular candidate. Scarborough, for instance, has spent a great deal of time far from his Texas parish, rallying Christian voters against an initiative promoting embryonic stem-cell research in Missouri. At his events, Scarborough makes a point not to mention Missouri's Republican Sen. Jim Talent, who is in a tight fight for reelection. But in private, he says candidly that he expects — and hopes — his efforts will give Talent a boost. "If a pro-life candidate benefits from Christians being involved, to God be the glory," Scarborough said. Pastors can further help their favored candidates by distributing "issue-oriented" voter guides in church, a tactic used for years among secular (often left-leaning) groups such as the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and adapted to faith communities by the Christian Coalition in the 1990s. The voter pamphlets are supposed to be neutral, but often present issues through a distinctly partisan lens. A guide distributed by a conservative group in Minnesota in 2004 laid out the candidates' views on aborting "unborn babies." One produced this year by the liberal evangelical group Sojourners describes immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops as the only way to bring peace to Iraq. Pastors have a right to work directly for candidates on their own time, as long as they don't use church resources. In a recent article aimed at evangelical preachers, Staver wrote that they "should feel free" to go even further and endorse a candidate from the pulpit because he thought the IRS law was unconstitutional. He repeatedly noted that the IRS had rarely sanctioned churches. The Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton, N.Y., is the only one ever to lose its tax-exempt certification, for sponsoring newspaper ads that opposed presidential candidate Bill Clinton. Far more often, IRS agents resolve complaints by training church leaders to avoid future missteps, said Lois G. Lerner, who directs the IRS unit for tax-exempt groups. In 2004, the IRS resolved dozens of complaints this way, including such blatant violations as churches donating to a candidate's campaign or placing political signs on their property. Given the slim chance of serious sanction, "I encourage pastors to exchange their muzzles for megaphones," Staver wrote in the Rev. Jerry Falwell's monthly newspaper, the National Liberty Journal. Political preaching has been particularly fervent this season in Ohio, where two conservative mega-churches have promoted the Republican candidate for governor, J. Kenneth Blackwell. They've featured him in at least six rallies that blended patriotic appeals with Christian revival. Yet the latest poll shows Blackwell trailing by 19 points. In part, that's because Ohio voters seem to be in an anti-Republican mood, after scandals involving state GOP politicians. It also shows that a pastor's influence only goes so far. Many on the Christian right credit their aggressive mobilization, similar to this fall's campaign, with securing President Bush's reelection. And turnout among evangelical voters did jump 9% from 2000 to 2004. But two religious groups that heavily back Democrats also came out in droves: Turnout was up 15% among Jews and 13% among mainline Protestants who attend liberal churches, according to surveys conducted by John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Overall turnout was up 4 points. "It's really difficult to parse out" the effectiveness of the religious right's mobilization in 2004 "because it was such an intense campaign," Green said. "It does seem to bear fruit, but it varies a great deal from congregation to congregation." Church-based campaigning may have been most influential in voters' choice of candidate. Bush won 78% of the evangelical vote in 2004, up from 68% in his first presidential bid. And evangelicals were far more likely than any other group of voters to say that religion was the most important factor in their political thinking. Voter education from the church "can be enormously effective," said Colin Hanna, who directs the Pennsylvania Pastors Network. The group of 850 seeks to mobilize voters against "abortion and other evils," according to its website. Some of this fall's efforts are aimed at energizing politically active but disillusioned Republicans who might otherwise stay home. But Hanna is particularly eager to reach the 30 million regular churchgoers, and an overlapping group of 19 million evangelicals, who did not vote in 2004. Their indifference to politics is "either a tragedy or a scandal," he said, but he's certain it can be overcome. Liberals, too, see potential in mingling faith and politics. Black churches have a long history of political activism from the pulpit, dating to the civil rights movement — but their efforts did not boost voter turnout in 2004. This time around, other Christians, including liberal Catholics, are jumping in to try to energize the religious left. They plan to distribute more than 1 million voter guides urging Christians to evaluate candidates based on issues such as poverty and global warming. A new consulting firm, Common Good Strategies, aims to help Democratic candidates make stronger pitches to communities of faith. For the most part, however, the left is far behind the right: "They've got organization and discipline that we don't really have yet," said Jack Pannell of Sojourners. "It may take us a generation." With both the left and the right pursuing faith-based strategies, the IRS issued a warning in February that churches may be in danger of becoming "arms of political campaigns and parties." Agents are looking into about 40 reported violations by churches and other tax-exempt nonprofits. A few are holdovers from 2004, including the high-profile probe into an antiwar sermon at a liberal Pasadena church. But new allegations continue to come in at a brisk clip. Liberal clergy in Ohio have filed a protest about the pastors' efforts on behalf of Blackwell. On the right, the website http://www.ratoutachurch.org is recruiting volunteers to report partisan activity from the pulpit that favors Democrats. Melissa Rogers, a visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., says she expects more complaints as the election approaches. In their zeal to bring politics into the pews, some religious leaders "have made a decision to walk on the razor's edge of the law," she said. "Or over the edge." stephanie.simon@latimes.com
Poster Comment: 
‘PATRIOT PASTORS’: “There are times in a pastor’s life when he needs to take a biblical stand,” says the Rev. Rick Scarborough, who urges church leaders to help get out the conservative vote. (David Kennedy / EPA) July 31, 2006 
CHURCH BACKING: J. Kenneth Blackwell, right, with former Rep. J.C. Watts, is running for Ohio governor. (Will Shilling / AP) March 9, 2006
Times Staff Writer
And the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena? One pacifist sermon against the war in Iraq and they may lose their tax exempt status.
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#4. To: robin (#0)
here's an email I received that is an editorial by Charles Carlson War is Public Policy, and Anti-War Churches Violate It Charles E. Carlson All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena made national news when the IRS challenged its tax-exempt status - a nearly unheard of event. The IRS action was allegedly provoked by an anti-war sermon delivered from the pulpit. All Saints senior warden announced the its leaders will "resist" the IRS order to turn over documents about the church's 3,500-members by the end of September. The dispute reportedly centers on a sermon titled "If Jesus Debated Senator Kerry and President Bush," delivered by a retired guest pastor who said Jesus would condemn the Iraq war and Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive war. This writer has not heard the sermon but understands it did not endorse either candidate. While John Kerry did not make a clear statement opposing the war, he was considered to be less warlike than Bush. It is this writer's opinion that a Kerry win would have been a mandate against war, even though Kerry did not demonstrate a strong anti-war backbone, as we stated in our November 2, 2004 Pharisee Watch.(1) All Saints appears to have been singled out from tens of thousands of churches for this challenge to its very existence, for churches are as hooked on tax- exempt status as addicts are on cocaine. It would be interesting to know how the decision was made to single out this one church, in view of campaigning that is going on in thousands of churches and other "religious" tax-exempt organizations. John Hagee, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and hundreds of others like them campaign openly in favor of war and candidates who favor war. Most do not say "Jesus would bomb Lebanon," but some openly declare it is a holy mission to do so. (1) Celebrity pulpit icons make no pretense of political impartiality; they support those who support holy war. All Saints Church Wardens stated they plan to "adjudicate some very fundamental issues we see as an intolerable infringement of rights." They need to know why so- called Christian-Zionist counterparts in evangelical churches can and do say almost anything and support almost anyone on the warmaking side of the isle. This disparity of rights exists is because War is Public Policy in our land, and anti-war violates public policy. The IRS spells out the restrictions that All Saints is under in its Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations, where it states: Congress has enacted special tax laws applicable to churches, religious organizations, and ministers in recognition of their unique status in American society and of their rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Most IRS publications and forms can be downloaded from the IRS Web site at www.IRS.gov. The "Guide to Churches" spells out what the church cannot do if it is not to be "sanctioned" by the IRS: (This Is The IRS Speaking) "All IRS section 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches and religious organizations, must abide by certain rules: Their net earnings may not inure to any private shareholder or individual, they must not provide a substantial benefit to private interests, they must not devote a substantial part of their activities to attempting to influence legislation, they must not participate in, or intervene in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to any candidate for public office, and the organization's purposes and activities may not be illegal or violate fundamental public policy." (emphasis added) There you have it. All Saints church and almost every other church accepted these rules when they accepted tax-exempt status many years ago. The truly amazing fact is that churches are not required to submit themselves to the IRS; they are deemed tax exempt based on the Constitution. The IRS Guide to Churches states it this way: "Churches that meet the requirements of IRC section 501(c)(3) are automatically considered tax exempt and are not required to apply for and obtain recognition of tax-exempt status from the IRS." and "Congress has imposed special limitations, found in IRC section 7611, on how and when the IRS may conduct civil tax inquiries and examinations of churches." The IRS admits churches are exempt from registration but... The speech made from the All Saints pulpit properly did not attempt to influence any specific legislation because wars are not legislated in our country but are proclaimed by the executive branch. And let's assume the pastor had the good sense not to tell the congregation whom to vote for, but simply pointed out what Christ would likely say about the immorality of destroying Iraq. Even if the Rector hinted that George W. Bush is more warlike than John Kerry, it is unlikely All Saints could be said to "participate in, or intervene in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office." Certainly not when compared to Christian Zionist churches that openly register voters at the churches and that stumped shamelessly for George W. Bush's war in Iraq. War is a moral issue. Tax exempt non-churches like James Dobson's 501 C organization openly tell me how to vote against "same sex marriage" and other moral issues. All Saints can probably prove that most of its efforts are about religion. But every anti-war church, including All Saints, is in trouble, because in America, war is "fundamental public policy," and you cannot be anti-war or anti-killing without violating it. Why? Because public policy is what the President says it is. All Saints, and every other organization that accepts subsidies, is at risk, because their policy is contrary to the policy set forth by our government. Congress has already ruled that churches are exempt from taxation, so why do they register and sign away their rights? Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, and Pat Robertson never oppose war because each war is known to somehow benefit the State of Israel. They are always in accord with the warring "fundamental public policy" of our government, so they are never challenged, no matter how arrogantly aggressive they are in supporting war. Some might ask why American foreign policy always demands war. The answer is a bumper sticker slogan, "it's the economy, dummy." We live in an empire, and every empire thrives on war...serial wars are a way of life and death for many, and a way to riches for a few. We have war because without it there is no need for companies to keep producing war toys. Without it there is no military mop to wipe up the unemployable, the immature, and the marginal. Serial wars find them and drag them out of the economy (where they are a liability) and place m in charge of throwing away the money that is printed at the Federal Reserve. Then money they waste employs their better educated bothers and cousins. When All Saints Episcopal Church bucks war they are setting themselves up to be reported to some IRS agent who has nothing better to do than call the Church leaders on the carpet and scare all the contributors with a challenge. Other such churches will take notice. Is there a solution to a nation where a few Warmakers control the source of money (the Federal Reserve) and the war machine, which is the marginal use of money? The answer to this question depends upon the churches that are suppose to be the moral solution to ungodly problems. But which church can we look to when almost 100% have accepted subsidies from the very people who want to control them? Yes, an uprising is needed. It requires a lot more churches like All Saints Episcopal, which is called "liberal," by the press, but which does not like "infringement of very basic rights" That sound Jeffersonian to me. If demanding our rights is liberal maybe some of us who call ourselves individualist need to try sharing some common ground with some like All Saints. Recently Rosie O'Donnell, a self-professing lesbian and brassy political "left- winger," denounced US Government complicity with the Christian Right in destroying the innocent in Iraq, "Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America", said O'Donnell: "We were attacked not by a nation. And as a result of the attack and the killing of nearly 3,000 innocent people we invaded two countries and killed innocent people in their countries." Unlike Jerry, John, and Pat and many other pulpit icons, Rosie is in it for profit, and I would guess she pays her taxes. The Celebrity Christian trio (and most of their clones) live in estates and fly in private jets, but do not pay taxes, at least not to the same degree the public does. Christian Zionists who are evangelicals like Falwell, Hagee and Roberson claim to be opposed to killing children, but they never flinch at the human cost of a 16-year war that has never stopped killing the people of Iraq, almost all of whom are totally innocent of any harm to us, and many of whom are children. Some are unborn children whose mothers were bombed and shot, taking their lives as well. Who is easier to logic with, Liberal Rosie and the Episcopal Church, or Jerry, John, and Pat? While you are at it, why not step over another taboo and get to know the Muslims in your community. Visit a Mosque talk to the kids, and you will find that they, too, want peace, no matter what you have heard to the contrary. (2) Project Strait Gate is a mission to who are under the false teaching of religious leaders whose logic for life is lost in their hatred of Islam. Their callous indifference to a million unnecessary deaths in our serial wars marks them. The Christian Right has become the primary enabler and cheerleader for the War on Islam. More shocking to those who take the trouble to look, they march to a false and repugnant apostasy that does not follow Christ. (3) We welcome those with whom we have had and still have differences to the common ground with no string attached, hoping it will be a starting place. We ask WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB, and we welcome all those who say, "NO ONE." Serial War and the Federal Reserve money machine are Siamese twins joined at the heart and the purse; those who understand this must drive a stake through the common heart. Courage and wisdom born of desperation will be required, as it was with the signers of the Declaration of Independence. They too, put differences aside. All Saints Episcopal church may be driven by such courage. May they stand fast even if they find the need to renounce their IRS granted privilege that binds them. May they discover and claim their constitutional rights without privilege granted by the IRS. (1) Bush v. Kerry, Pharisee Watch, 2004 http://www.whtt.org/printerfriendly.php?news=2&id=475 (2)Visiting a Mosque by Tom Compton http://www.whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=753 (3) Christian Zionism's Roots By Charles Carlson http://www.whtt.org If your church is preventing you from following Christ you need to Follow CHRIST and reject "Christianity." We Hold These Truths / Strait Gate Ministries (We accept donations and we reject 501C status) http://www.whtt.org P.O. Box 14491 Scottsdale, AZ 85267 Phone 480-947-332 info@whtt.org
Thanks for this good info.
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#5. To: Red Jones (#4)
There you have it. All Saints church and almost every other church accepted these rules when they accepted tax-exempt status many years ago. The truly amazing fact is that churches are not required to submit themselves to the IRS; they are deemed tax exempt based on the Constitution.
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