Posted on 09/18/2006 6:34:03 PM PDT by xzins
Liberal Calif. Church Will Decide Soon Whether to Fight IRS Summons
By The Associated Press Mon, Sep. 18 2006 11:10 AM ET[-] Text [+] SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER PRINT E-MAIL MORE FROM SECTION LOS ANGELES (AP) - A liberal church at the center of a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over a 2004 sermon will decide this week whether to fight an IRS summons. Related IRS Investigating Liberal Calif. Church (September 17, 2006) The IRS is requesting a number of documents be produced by Sept. 29 and that the church's rector, Rev. Ed Bacon, testify before an IRS agent on Oct. 11.
The congregation of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena discussed the matter during a church service Sunday.
The church could lose its tax-exempt status because of an anti-war sermon delivered two days before the 2004 election by its former rector, Rev. George F. Regas.
Regas did not urge parishioners to support President Bush or Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., but was critical of the Iraq war and Bush's tax cuts, Bacon said in an interview last November when the investigation was announced.
Parishioners Sunday gave Bacon a standing ovation after he described reasons why the church might choose to resist the summons.
Resisting would mean the IRS would have to decide whether to ask for a hearing before a judge, who could then rule on the legality of the summons.
If a hearing were held, the church would argue that the IRS summons is "an intrusion, an attack upon this church's First Amendment rights to the exercise of freedom of religion and freedom of speech," Bacon said.
Though no vote was taken Sunday, there appeared to be strong support to resist the summons, several congregants said.
"We are leaning in that direction," said church spokesman Keith Holeman.
The church's governing body could still decide to comply with the summons in the hope that producing the documents and the testimony would resolve the dispute, said Robert Long, the church's senior warden.
"I've been through the documents and I think it fully supports our position that we have not been in violation of the IRS regulations," Long said.
All Saints has a long history of social activism dating back to World War II, when its rector spoke out against the internment of Japanese Americans. Regas, who headed the church for 28 years before retiring in 1995, was well-known for opposing the Vietnam War, championing female clergy and supporting gays and lesbians in the church.
A copy of Bacon's sermon was set to be posted on the church's Web site later Sunday.
taxation of a church is a violation of 1st amendment free exercise rights
take any of the money I've dedicated to God and you've impeded my worship of God. Therefore, my worship was not free; it was impeded.
Take their property.
501.C.3
Another attack on free speech. Any pastor at any pulpit should be allowed to say whatever he wants whenever he wants. The 501.c.3 brought the churches who comply down to their knees. Turned them into corporation churches.
Talk about a "wall between church and state." It's amazing what the nanny government has done to our churches. It's also amazing what the pastors have allowed the churches to become: silent whores to the government. No more speeches about abortion, homosexuality, fornication, etc. If you're a corporation church, you have to shut up! If you, as a pastor, favor a candidate or dislike a candidate, you're not allowed to speak. Incredible!
That's why Sunday in church is more entertainment than substance.
The IRS should have no authority over religion.
The government should have no authority over religion except with criminal behavior such as murder, true theft, etc.
There is a rift in the Episcopal Church over just such things.
Still, the IRS needs to keep it's money-grabbing fingers out of the Churches..any of them..the Church will and should teach as it pleases.
Then churches should not have tax exempt status.
I agree.
If this liberal can be silenced over a sermon about taxes & the war, then I can be silenced over a sermon against abortion or homosexuality.
It will all depend on which administration is in power.
And then it won't depend on anything except whim.
They can pay taxes like evry other political organization.
Churches can't be taxed because of the constitution, not because of some so-called tax exempt status.
Churches used to be a haven from the pressures of the world. Many have become nothing more than places to congregate and hear left wing indoctrination. Have you ever heard the leader of the National Council of Churches speak? As left-wing as can be.
There is a rift in the Methodist Church, too. Not as public as the Episcopal rift.
Democraps already use the IRS against their enemies when in power.
Thats reality.
Ditto.
I believe I read that a church was prosecuted in 1992 for using right-wing rhetoric. Anybody have the facts?
An appellate court has upheld a federal court ruling removing an upstate New York church's tax-exempt status after it bought newspaper ads opposing then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. The revocation, which marked the first time a church has lost its tax exemption for political activity, "neither violated the Constitution nor exceeded the IRS's statutory authority," ruled a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on May 12.
Lawyers for the Church at Pierce Creek in the i, New York, area had argued that the Internal Revenue Service violated the church's free-speech rights, engaged in selective prosecution and exceeded its authority. "These objections are without merit," the appellate court found in a unanimous ruling.
Just before the 1992 election, the church and its pastor, Daniel J. Little, purchased full-page advertisements in USA Today and the Washington Times to encourage voters to reject Clinton on the basis of his stands on homosexuality and abortion. Americans United for Separation and State filed a complaint with the tax agency after the "Christians Beware" ads appeared.
Which doesn't make it right....just real.
I agree. Both taxes and war are legitimate moral issues and a church ought to be able to freely teach and preach either for or against taxes and war without fear of governmental retribution. If they can do this to liberal churches now, they can silence conservative churches when the liberals take power. And eventually they will.
Are you nuts? What if they hold slaves in the basement? Would they then be subject to the Constitution?
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