Nearly seven months after challenging the IRS to investigate them for campaigning from the pulpit, the 33 churches that participated in the Alliance Defense Fund's "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" are still waiting to hear from the agency, according to an AP report over the weekend. The silence could mean a number of things about the fate of this misguided effort.
It's possible the IRS ignored the recent protest because it does not have an incentive to pursue the issue, said Robert Tuttle, a professor of law and religion at George Washington University.
"It would be expensive for them to fight, and it would give people all sorts of reasons to say the IRS is evil and irreligious," Tuttle said. "It's not like they're going to recoup a lot of money. Their attitude is probably 'why bother?'"
Or, it could be too early to say. When similar violations occurred during previous presidential elections, the IRS took two or three years to introduce litigation to strip a church of its tax-exempt status, said John Witte Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.
"Even so, if the IRS wanted to pounce on this, I think it would have by now," Witte said.
The ADF is promising to continue organizing this form of protest. If so, the IRS will eventually have to act, right? Professor Tuttle's point is well-taken, but if this is a recurring and growing challenge, I would think some signal should be sent that these regulations can't simply be ignored.
