Free Republic

LOS ANGELES - The Internal Revenue Service has warned a prominent liberal church that it could lose it's tax-exempt status because of an anti-war sermon a guest preacher gave on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, according to church officials. The Rev. George F. Regas did not urge parishioners at All Saints Episcopal Church to support either President Bush or John Kerry, but he was critical of the Iraq war and Bush's tax cuts. The IRS warned the church in June that its tax-exempt status was in jeopardy because such organizations are prohibited from intervening in political campaigns and...

"On Church and State", by Lores Rizkalla, Freeper 'JustaWoman' Billy Graham said that "bad politicians are elected by good people who don't vote." I think the same is true of "bad propositions" passing because good people decide to stay home on election day. This Tuesday, California (among many other states) has a special election. Statistics say that an average of 5% of registered voters get out to vote in an off-year election. What's worse is the truth so beautifully, yet sadly, written by William Butler Yeats': "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." Where...

Many tax-exempt animal rights organizations like PeTA deceive the public, endorse violence and fund terrorism. If you think groups like PeTA should lose their tax status, sign our petition! Since the mid 1990's, NAIA has been prodding government to do its job and protect the public from corrupt charities that receive tax breaks while violating their exempt purpose, committing crimes and supporting terrorism. Read some of our previous action alerts and press releases and then sign our petition calling for IRS review of 'charities' that operate like mobsters Sign Petition

When Pastor Chan Chandler proclaimed a few weeks before last November's election that East Waynesville Baptist Church would become a political church, parishioner Ann Stokley says her "jaw dropped to the floor." That the young pastor would call John Kerry supporters out as unfit Christians may not have been that surprising during a heated election in this county of some 60 Southern Baptist steeples nestled in the Appalachians. But Tuesday night, six months after the election - and a week after nine members claim they were kicked out of the church for refusing to vote Republican - Mr. Chandler, a...

WASHINGTON — As one pastor resigned this week amid a firestorm over the role of politics in his Baptist church, a U.S. congressman continues to try to make it easier for religious leaders and their congregations to engage in partisan political activity on the church's time and dime. Rev. Chan Chandler (search) resigned his post as pastor of the Waynesville Baptist Church (search) in North Carolina on Tuesday after nine members accused him of leading other members to push them out because they didn't agree with his pro-Republican views. Chandler has denied claims that the nine were voted out because...

Federal prosecutors announced Thursday they have indicted Pete Seda, the head of the Ashland branch of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, on fraud and tax charges. Seda, also known as Pirouz Sedaghaty and Abu Yunus, and another officer of the foundation, Soliman Hamd Al-Buthe, are part of a three-count indictment for illegally transporting $150,000 to Saudi Arabia. The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene, charges them with conspiracy to defraud the United States, filing a false IRS return for a tax-exempt corporation and failure to file a report of international transportation of currency. Known locally as a peace activist,...

Tax-Exempt Hospitals' Practices Challenged46 Lawsuits Allege That Uninsured Pay the Most TUPELO, Miss. -- When Tim Gardner was born at the hospital here 53 years ago, it was just "one little building on the hill" in a town best known as Elvis Presley's birthplace. From those humble beginnings, North Mississippi Medical Center has grown into the largest non-metropolitan hospital in the country, a booming enterprise with a complex of glass and marble buildings and 40 satellite clinics stretching into Alabama and Tennessee. The company, incorporated in Delaware, has nearly $300 million in the bank and "exceptional profitability," according to one...

Kweisi Mfume recently announced his departure as NAACP President, and not a moment too soon. His tenure has been a disaster for the storied civil rights organization, driving it deeper into liberal irrelevance. But that doesn't mean it still shouldn't be defended against the current IRS probe of its tax-exempt status. Back in October the NAACP was informed that it may have violated a law that prohibits charities, churches and other nonprofits from engaging in partisan activities. Under Mr. Mfume and chairman Julian Bond, the group has accused President Bush of being at war with black America; compared Republicans to...

Seattle Budget Follies The fiscally incontinent Seattle City Council has approved the 2005 budget. The council changed little of Mayor Greg Nickels' 2005 proposed budget, except by adding almost $6 million in spending, with most of that going to streets and bridges, libraries and social services. The council would finance most of its additions through a 1.5 percent increase in garbage, water, sewer and drainage charges. The increase would cost the average homeowner about $16 more a year. In a nutshell, the council socked every homeowner with a fee increase on essential services, in order to: a) Protect $109 opera...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a statement of Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice: Catholics for a Free Choice today filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (news - web sites) against Catholic Answers, Inc. for blatant violation of its charitable status. CFFC called on the IRS to exercise its "authority to revoke the tax-exempt status of Catholic Answers and bring an action to enjoin this organization from again distributing this guide through national newspaper advertisements in October." On Aug. 31, the antichoice group published an ad containing the text of its Voter's...

A Catholic group plans to ask the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the tax-exempt status of a Miami, Fla., church, where prominent Democrats helped turn the Sunday church service into what the South Florida Sun-Sentinel called a "political rally." The Catholic League said the bishop of Miami's New Birth Baptist Church, Bishop Victor T. Curry, "welcomed" former Democratic presidential candidate Rev. Al Sharpton and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe. "Rev. Sharpton, speaking from the pulpit, added to the politicized atmosphere by shouting, 'We're not people who are going to be beat twice,'" Catholic League President William...

Campaign-finance watchdog groups are questioning the ability of the Internal Revenue Service to track soft-money fundraising in light of a multi-million-dollar mistake by the Republican Governors Association. They also say the IRS has little incentive to enforce accurate reporting because the organization is tax-exempt under tax code section 527. At the same time, the issue raises serious issues with how the RGA keeps its books, the congressional newspaper The Hill reported. The RGA has told the IRS that last year it failed to report more than $3 million it raised in the months preceding the gubernatorial races in Kentucky, Louisiana,...

SPARTANBURG, SC (Talon News) -- Liberal anti-Bush online political activist group MoveOn.org sent a warning message to its members this week regarding the upcoming ruling by the Federal Election Commission about the legality of so-called 527 groups accepting soft campaign contributions to run political ads."The Republican National Committee is pressing the Federal Election Commission to issue new rules that would cripple groups that dare to communicate with the public in any way critical of President Bush or members of Congress," MoveOn.org charged in an e-mail to supporters.In the e-mail, MoveOn.org attempts to scare "conservative, progressive, labor, religious, secular, social...

Take a Bite Out of PETA! Posted January 19, 2004 Despite its deceptively warm-and-fuzzy public image, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has donated over $150,000 to criminal activists -- including those jailed for arson, burglary, and even attempted murder. In 2001, PETA donated $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front, a criminal organization that the FBI classifies as "domestic terrorists." And since 2000, rank-and-file PETA activists have been arrested over 80 times for breaking various laws during PETA protests. Charges included felony obstruction of government property, criminal mischief, assaulting a cabinet official, felony vandalism, performing obscene...

Measure would eliminate tax exclusion for Americans abroad By Elizabeth Olson/IHT (IHT) Saturday, May 17, 2003 WASHINGTON: A provision to eliminate the income-tax exclusion for American wage earners overseas was in the Senate version of the tax package approved late Thursday, and its future could be decided within days when congressional negotiators are to begin hammering out the final bill. Repealing the income tax break, which allows each American worker to exclude $80,000 in income in calculating U.S. taxes, is not in the House of Representatives' $550 billion package, passed this month. Reconciling the two very different versions will be...

Greater Bethel AME Church (African Methodist Episcopal) 140 Rose St Athens 706/548-0014 Pastor: David T. Batts PROFILE OF PASTOR BATTS Over the weekend, the philandering adulterer daddy and race-baiting poverty pimp, Rev. Jesse Jackson, used the pulpit at the Greater Bethel AME Church in Athens, Georgia for a RAT partisan diatribe. Why is that church, that is using the pulpit to promote RAT political interests, allowed to retain its tax-exempt status? Why is it exempt from property tax? It is absolutely an arm of the RAT party. That is fine, however, they should pay for it. I tried calling the...

Tell Congress No to War on Iraq September 27, 2002 Congress is expected to vote soon on a resolution giving the Bush administration extremely broad authority to use military force against Iraq. Please contact your senators and representatives and urge them to stand firm against the Bush administration's warmongering. Background: For the past few weeks, the nation and the world have focused on what appears to be an impending war on Iraq. The Bush administration now seems poised to turn its saber rattling into action. However, while Bush & Co. prepare to rush off to war, questioning voices grow louder...

April 30, 2002 Dear friend of liberty, Let's level the playing field. Why can Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton preach politics from the pulpit, present political candidates in the chancel, and advocate socialism in the sanctuary without losing their tax exempt status, yet conservative and libertarian Christians and Jews cannot preach, present or advocate their political opinions or candidates in a church or synagogue without scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service? In recent years, liberal religious leaders chafing at the emerging power of conservative Christians and Jews have sent letters to churches and synagogues threatening to turn them in...

After the visas-for-terrorists debacle, the folks at SUBINTSOC.NET (who claim to have special access to federal computer systems) have blown the lid off half a dozen other examples of government incompetence: "Think the recent terrorist attacks were a wake-up call for the U.S. government? Think again. Last week, the world learned that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had sent out visa-approval letters to hijackers Mohammed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi -- six months to the day after September 11! "Using our special access to ARPAnet, we decided to see what other notices had been mistakenly mailed out by government agencies. We...