Anti-War? Ante Up!

This is something I wanted to post about this morning, but — as you might have noticed if you stopped by this morning — my blog was down. It’s a story fit for McCarthyism Watch. A church in Los Angles got a warning from the IRS about possibly losing its tax-expempt status, because of an anti-war sermon delivered in 2004.

Rector J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena told many congregants during morning services Sunday that a guest sermon by the church’s former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, on Oct. 31, 2004, had prompted a letter from the IRS.

In his sermon, Regas, who from the pulpit opposed both the Vietnam War and 1991′s Gulf War, imagined Jesus participating in a political debate with then-candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas said that “good people of profound faith” could vote for either man, and did not tell parishioners whom to support.

But he criticized the war in Iraq, saying that Jesus would have told Bush, “Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine. Forcibly changing the regime of an enemy that posed no imminent threat has led to disaster.”

On June 9, the church received a letter from the IRS stating that “a reasonable belief exists that you may not be tax-exempt as a church … ” The federal tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from intervening in political campaigns and elections.

The letter went on to say that “our concerns are based on a Nov. 1, 2004, newspaper article in the Los Angeles Times and a sermon presented at the All Saints Church discussed in the article.”

You can read the sermon for yourself.

It sounds like something out of an alternate universe, or from the other side of looking glass, but it happened in America. Theoretically, now pastors cannot preach against war or about the value of preserving peace without risking their church’s tax-exempt status. The IRS offered not to proceed to the investigation stage if the church simply admitted wrong doing, but the church declined.

From reading the article, I think the church is given the IRS too much of the benefit of the doubt. Their lawyer says he thinks the whole thing is matter of bureaucracy and isn’t politically motivated. Of course, I think its entirely politically motivated. It’s another simple way of shutting down dissent. At least some ministers will probably think twice about speaking out against the war.

I wonder, however, if this isn’t a double-edged sword that can be wielded against the religious right, and perhaps strike them right where they live the next time one of their churches or ministers speaks out against reproductive choice or gay & lesbian equality; especially where there are state or local campaigns involved.

Just a thought.

(Link via Cursor.)

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