Written by Don Byrd
Americans United sent a letter of complaint to the IRS describing a church marquee in Texas urging folks to “vote for the Mormon not the Muslim.”
That’s about as many troublesome sentiments per word I can ever remember for one sign. For one, of course President Obama is not Muslim, as the sign implies. Even more importantly, referring to someone as Muslim is certainly no insult or indication of disqualification for the presidency as the continuing campaign to disparage President Obama by mis-stating his faith would indicate.
But that’s just the bad manners portion of the problem with this sign.
The legal issue as AU points out is the act of endorsing a candidate (here, clearly Governor Romney) using church resources that are exempt from taxation.
[Pastor Ray] “Miller may indeed have strong feelings about the election, but that does not give him the right to use his tax-exempt church to endorse a candidate,” Lynn wrote to IRS officials. “In fact, Miller’s actions are a clear and flagrant violation of the law.”
Added Lynn, “Millions of Americans are aware that this church has openly violated the law, and many of them are asking what the IRS intends to do about it. Failure to act will only spur more houses of worship to ignore the law.”
Of course, the question remains as to whether anyone at the IRS is listening to such complaints for now, but if they are, it may be time to start acting to enforce these important regulations that honor the tax exempt status of religious organizations, protecting churches and the electoral process alike.
