Posted on 06/01/2007 3:55:19 AM PDT by siunevada
The IRS has contacted a Wichita church about whether it has violated rules that prohibit churches from engaging in most political activity, the church's pastor said Thursday.
Pastor Mark Holick of Spirit One Christian Center, 1515 E. Harry, said the IRS sent him a letter last month asking him to respond to questions about political activities at the church.
Those activities include the pastor's involvement in distributing voter guides and messages on the church's marquee critical of candidates and their stances on abortion.
Under IRS tax code, churches and nonprofit groups are prohibited from some political campaign activities, including endorsing candidates and contributing money during active elections.
Groups that violate the ban risk losing their nonprofit status.
Michael Devine, IRS spokesman in Kansas, said he could not comment on specifics about the church's situation because of IRS privacy codes.
Holick said he submitted his responses Thursday, the final day he had to respond to the IRS.
On Thursday, he said he was disturbed by the IRS' inquiry.
"It's a clear violation of the First Amendment, the free exercise of religion, the free exercise of speech," said Holick, one of the most outspoken abortion opponents in the Wichita area.
He scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. today at his church to discuss the issue.
Holick said the letter raised 31 questions.
The IRS wanted to know if former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline spoke at Spirit One about elected officials and whether he asked the church to support his campaign. Holick said he answered no to both questions.
Holick said the IRS wanted information about four statements posted on the church marquee, how long they were posted, when they were posted and what the cost was. He said the four statements were:
• Morrison accepts blood money from abortionist Tiller. How many babies??
• Canfield supports life and traditional family, Barnett does not.
• Paul Morrison early release of felons. Reginald Carr multiple murders.
• Abortionist Tiller has given $300,000 to Sebelius. Price of 1,000 babies!
During the heat of the campaign last November, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said: "The governor has never received money from ProKanDo and has not a single donation from Dr. Tiller in her race for governor. These claims are totally false and made-up numbers."
Corcoran said Thursday that she stands by that statement.
Holick said the IRS also questioned him about his involvement with Kansans for Life in passing out voter guides on a sidewalk in front of a west Wichita church.
Federal law prohibits political campaign activity by charities and churches by defining a 501(c)(3) organization as one "which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office."
Many of the complaints about churches and charities violating the law turn out to be valid, according to the IRS.
Nearly three-quarters of 82 examinations completed during the 2004 election cycle concluded that tax-exempt organizations, including churches, engaged in some level of prohibited political activity, according to the IRS Web site. Most them involved "one-time, isolated occurrences of prohibited campaign activity, which the IRS addressed through written advisories to the organizations."
Churches rarely have their nonprofit status revoked.
Holick said it appears that if the church doesn't say it's sorry and institute a policy to stop political statements in the future, it could face further scrutiny.
But Holick said he won't stop speaking out on issues such as abortion, even if it means naming politicians.
"We'll have to speak to these issues as long I'm a Christian," he said.
Continuing such activities, however, could lead to revocation of the church's nonprofit status.
The IRS Web site says that if a church's response is satisfactory, there may be no further action. But the IRS may ask for more information or open an examination if the reply doesn't remedy the problem.
It says, "revocation or denial of exempt status without examination may also be appropriate in cases in which material facts are not in dispute..."
As Christians, we may need to give up our precious tax exempt status for a while to be able to speak out politically.
Didn't Lyndon Johnson push this restriction? It should be overturned.
We'll have to wait for a Republican House to initiate an investigation of the Kansas field office.
PING PING PING
If the IRS wants to pick on a church that is politically active, why don’t they go after that Baptist one that protests at funerals?
Seems to me that churches should eschew the tax exemption and give to Caesar what Caesar demands. Then the churches can tell the people why Caesar is evil. That wouldn’t happen everywhere, though, given the politically correct state of many churches today.
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