Written by Don Byrd
Labor Day is just around the corner and in even-numbered years that means one thing: election season. Two months of political ads, mailers, yard signs, and debates. For many candidates, churches are irresistible avenues of campaigning; for many church-goers, political campaigns offer conversation about issues of great religious and moral import.
So, how can congregations really engage campaigns, while complying with IRS regulations governing their tax-exempt status? As I posted earlier this week, an effort in Kentucky to arrange for U.S. Senate debates in Baptist churches has generated well-earned controversy.
Today, Religion News Service’s Tobin Grant offers “five basic rules.” Here’s number 4:
4. Churches may host candidates to speak about the election, but they must do so in a way that is not partisan and gives equal opportunity to all the candidates.
A church may invite each of the candidates to speak during the worship service and field questions from the congregation. So long as the church doesn’t endorse one of the candidates or show bias against the candidates, this is all legal. The church is giving a non-partisan forum for all candidates to discuss the election. Even if a candidate declines to attend, the church is acting legally because it invited each of the candidates.
Read all five. Also, check out the Baptist Joint Committee’s resource page on church electioneering.
Perhaps most importantly, remember that congregations are comprised of diverse viewpoints. Church engagement in campaign activities not only runs afoul of the law, it jeopardizes the health of the congregation by sowing needless dissension and conflict.
