Protecting pulpits’ role in politics
Culberson measure would make IRS get OK for church probes
WASHINGTON — It was an election year in Harris County, and the pastors at Second Baptist Church on Woodway Drive in Houston were talking about the issues and encouraging the congregation to participate.
At some point, a member of the congregation placed pamphlets in the lobby endorsing a specific candidate. Associate Pastor Gary Moore remembers that church officials removed the materials, but not before a group that promotes the separation of church and state heard about them.
Next thing Moore knew, Second Baptist received an audit letter from the IRS, challenging the church’s tax-exempt status.
Second Baptist survived that 1996 audit, but the event still stands out in the mind of Texas
U.S. Rep. John Culberson, who is pushing legislation in Congress that would protect churches and other religious organizations accused of engaging in prohibited political activity.
Though the Houston congressman’s action came before the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the right to same-sex marriage, it has become part of the larger political fight in Washington over the prerogatives of churches to express and act upon their beliefs.
With social conservatives feeling that their religious freedoms are under threat by a larger secular society, Culberson is seeking to rein in government regulators by forcing them to go through Congress.
His measure would require the IRS to notify the House Ways and Means Committee before launching an audit of any church organization, thereby adding a new layer of public scrutiny to the government’s ability to threaten a religious group’s tax exempt status.
Congress, however, could not directly block an audit, and the rule against politicking by tax-exempt organizations would remain in place.
Culberson said his proposal would not grant new freedoms but rather add a safeguard so that only the most outrageous political campaign activity can be subject to IRS review.
“The effect will be to force the entire discussion about whether or not a church, synagogue or place of worship has crossed the line out into the sunshine,” Culberson said. “Sunshine is a very healthy disinfectant, and if the (IRS) commissioner is confident that a place of worship has crossed a line, then the commissioner will have no fear of discussing and potentially revoking their tax exempt status.”
Rights long protected
Churches’ rights of free expression have long been protected by the First Amendment, but at least since the 1950s religious organizations and other nonprofits cannot take sides in elections without risking their tax-exempt status.
Under federal rules authored in 1954 by then Texas U.S. Sen. Lyndon Johnson, churches have been able to discuss political issues and even engage in voter registration drives, much as black churches did throughout the South during the civil rights era. But, federal rules say, they “cannot participate in or intervene in an election, including publishing or distributing statements in support of or in opposition of a candidate.”
Since 1954, the line between church and state has been tested repeatedly. In recent election cycles, particularly in the 2008 presidential election, a movement of pastors nationwide spoke out against Democratic nominee Barack Obama because of his stance in favor of abortion rights. Dubbed “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” the sermons were encouraged by the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, which sought a legal showdown in defiance of the Johnson-era rule. Lawyers on both sides of the issue say that the government proved reluctant to prosecute pastors and bring the issue to a head.
‘It needs to go away’
Despite the tension, only one church has had its tax-exempt status revoked for political activity, and that was in 1992, when the Church at Pierce Creek in New York sponsored a full page ad in USA Today and the Washington Times opposing presidential candidate Bill Clinton. A similar church-state showdown came to a head in Houston last year when Mayor Annise Parker was forced to retract subpoenas issued to five pastors who publicly opposed the city’s proposed Equal Rights Ordinance.
Currently, lower level IRS agents can file audits independently. The Culberson measure was added as an amendment to a financial services and general government spending bill last month that passed in the House Appropriations Committee by party line vote. It could come up for final House passage later this month. Its fate in the Senate is unknown.
Some Democrats question whether Culberson’s measure might not further politicize auditing decisions.
“This amendment makes drastic changes to long-standing federal law that is not appropriate under these circumstances with so little consideration for the consequences,” said U.S. Rep. José Serrano, DN.Y.
Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said his organization argues for the constitutional right of pastors to speak freely from the pulpit, even if it is on political matters. He would like to see the Johnson-era rule repealed.
“It has been applied for over 60 years against churches, and it’s resulted in this pervasive chill and fear on pastors’ speech since then,” Stanley said. “I think that the general public doesn’t understand. There’s kind of this cultural understanding of how a pastor can’t say anything political from the pulpit. And it’s just not true. That restriction is unconstitutional, it needs to go away.”
Among Culberson’s opponents is Rob Boston, director of communications for the national chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Boston is concerned the measure places another hurdle to stop the IRS from investigating churches.
“The goal is to gut the IRS regulations that govern partisan political activity by houses of worship,” Boston said. “Under this amendment, a barrier would be erected that would make it extremely difficult to crack down on churches.”
Sometimes it can be a fine line. Even simple voter guides can be “disguised campaign literature,” Boston said.
“They’re not even subtle,” he added. “You are clearly led to believe that one candidate is superior to the other and you ought to vote for that person.”
At Second Baptist in Houston, Moore said the church has a strict policy of adhering to federal tax exemption regulations. The church prints voter guides, which list the topics and show each candidate’s stance.
“The topics listed there are topics voting Christian have interest in,” Moore said. “I think it’s a very objective way of looking at that.”