Churches and Politicking

This Associated Press article reports:

The Internal Revenue Service has been warning churches and nonprofit organizations that improper campaigning in the upcoming political season could endanger their tax-exempt status.

In notices to more than 15,000 tax-exempt organizations, numerous church denominations and tax preparers, the agency has detailed its new enforcement program, called the Political Activity Compliance Initiative, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Under the initiative, the IRS plans to expedite investigations into claims of improper campaigning, no longer waiting for an annual tax return to be filed or the tax year to end before launching a probe. A three-member committee will make an initial review of complaints and then vote on whether to pursue the investigation in detail.

I'm glad that the IRS is cracking down on the political activities of churches. This has concerned me for more than thirty years, going back to when I was a young political activist and learned, to my dismay, that a pol in whose office I then worked was going to between three and five churches every Sunday morning in order to campaign. (I was a Democrat in those days and that was far more common practice by Democratic candidates than it was by Republicans. The opposite appears to be the case today.)

Some churches and candidates try to fudge their violations of these laws by presenting the campaigners only in their present capacities as office-holders, not as candidates for office in a current election. That's happening here in Ohio again this year.

In my estimation, that's not only illegal, it's also ethically improper. As I wrote here, in response to the Texas governor signing two bills into law in a church gym:

When I ran for the Ohio House of Representatives last year, I was careful that no reference to my campaign invaded the worship services of our congregation. (One well-meaning person brought it up during the announcements one Sunday morning and after I explained that I deemed that inappropriate, he never mentioned it again. A fund-raiser was also held there. But we open the facility to virtually all community groups and would allow any political candidate not advocating hate to use our facilities. We feel that God has given us our building and we want to share it with others. While the congregation does not charge for the use of its building, my campaign paid the congregation for the building use anyway.) I never would countenance a candidate for public office speaking during a worship celebration at our church or to in any way, use the church for political purposes. Not only is this illegal under federal law, it's inconsistent with the mission of the Church.

There are times when the Church may feel called by God to make statements on public issues, when God's command to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God will clearly mandate speaking out. It may also need to clarify relevant Biblical material in order to help Christians prayerfully consider public issues and the responsible exercise of their citizenship. (I tried to do something like this, for example, in my recent series on immigration.) But whether in its efforts to be either prophetic or informative, the Church should never back specific parties, candidates, or ideologies. Churches and pastors who do this risk putting Jesus Christ and His Gospel in a position of subordination to human philosophies.

I frankly have questions about whether churches should have non-profit status in the first place. Such status, administered by the wrong people, has the potential for being used as intimidating leverage on churches. However, under current law, it's clearly illegal for churches to endorse candidates or parties.

Even if it were legal, I don't think that it's Biblically defensible.

[Thanks to Andy Jackson for pointing to the AP story.]