Posted on 07/24/2004 6:24:55 AM PDT by take
Democrats back church IRS probe Decry 'politically involved religious leaders,' while pastor stands firm on his July 4 sermon
WASHINGTON – The local Democratic Party is supporting an Internal Revenue Service investigation of an Arkansas pastor who is accused of delivering a pro-Bush sermon July 4.
The Washington County Democratic Committee issued a statement affirming a complaint filed by Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, against Ronnie Floyd, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Springdale.
The Democrats say the sermon should be "investigated thoroughly."
The party, the statement said, "looks forward to the day when all citizens may vote their conscience without their political beliefs being dictated to them by politically involved religious leaders, regardless of denomination."
Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against the pastor's July 4 sermon, suggesting it endorsed the re-election of President Bush and therefore violated the conditions of the church's tax-exempt status.
"American democracy is rooted in the principle of the separation of church and state," the Democratic committee's statement said. "The Washington County Democratic Party remains committed to maintaining this value and belief if only in our small corner of the state."
Associate Pastor Alan Damron of First Baptist replied in a prepared statement: "Contrary to the statement by the Washington County Democratic Party, 'separation of church and state' is not in the United States Constitution. Our Constitution guarantees the right for all to speak on political, social, moral, and biblical issues. The Constitution includes pastors and churches. There have been American religious leaders past and present who did not and have not withheld their opinions about social issues or moral issues and/or politicians who supported or opposed various American rights. If the pastors or churches are not protected by the First Amendment, then neither are professors, or non-profit, tax-exempt educational institutions. The July 4th sermon of Pastor Ronnie Floyd exemplifies the best of our American tradition of freedom and democracy. The message did not violate any IRS provision by any stretch of the imagination, and is most assuredly protected by the First Amendment, that protects us all, even those who may disagree with us."
The church itself issued a statement yesterday: "The alleged letter of complaint to the Internal Revenue Service from Mr. Barry Lynn of the 'Americans United for the Separation of Church and State' is nothing more than a threat to pastors and our churches in America, attempting to intimidate the church into silence. This threat 'to take away our tax-exempt status' based on a July 4 presentation has no credence at all. Pastor Floyd did not violate any laws, nor did he or the church endorse a particular candidate. An attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues and political activity of non-profit organizations has viewed the message presented on July 4 and calls Mr. Lynn's accusations unfounded. Mr. Lynn attempts to intimidate pastors and churches by baseless allegations during every election cycle."
The statement pointed out that the Internal Revenue Service has not taken away the tax-exempt status from any church in the history of our nation for political reasons.
"It appears that some people have two rule books, one for liberal, and one for conservative politics," the statement continued." The fact is that history does not support the baseless threats hurled against conservative churches. Since 1934, when the lobbying restriction was added to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), not one church has ever lost its tax-exempt status."
Lynn's letter to the IRS reads, in part: "The pastor's description of the candidates' stands and their personal religious beliefs was obviously aimed at encouraging congregants to cast ballots for Bush. The church is known for its stands on social issues and its opposition to legal abortion and gay rights. By lauding Bush's stands on these and other issues and attacking (Sen. John) Kerry's, Floyd was plainly telling his congregation to be sure to vote for Bush.
"I have enclosed a videotape that includes the entire sermon as well as a partial transcript. About 45 minutes into the message, Floyd begins to discuss the differences between Bush and Kerry. Please note that even the imagery employed by the church is designed to promote Bush. A huge photo of Bush is projected onto a screen that shows the president next to an American flag. By contrast, small photos of Kerry are used that show him as one person in a larger crowd. In addition, Bush is shown signing a ban on late-term abortions, an act most church members will laud, while Kerry is shown as one of a group of senators who opposed a law banning same-sex marriage, a stand most church members will likely oppose."
Americans United for Separation of Church and State is one of two organizations in the news for monitoring political statements delivered from America's church pulpits.
In Kansas, monitors from the Mainstream Coalition are being accused of creating a "chilling effect" on the sermons in that state's churches.
Last month, the Mainstream Coalition announced it would send volunteers into area churches to see whether pastors were abiding by federal laws governing political activity by non-profit institutions.
While the group maintains it is non-partisan and objects across the board to all kinds of politicking in the pews, the organization's website shows the Mainstream Coalition has a strong political agenda of its own. Policy statements posted include the following:
strong support of Roe v. Wade strong support of late-term abortions strong support of sex education strong support of human cloning strong support of hate-crime laws strong support of gun control strong support for teaching of evolution strong opposition to prayer in schools strong opposition even to the wearing of religious symbols on government property Some might question just how mainstream those positions are. Would such a group, for instance, object to the use of churches to promote politicians who support such an agenda?
Currently, Mainstream has about 100 volunteers monitoring churches mostly in the Kansas City suburbs.
Americans United, meanwhile, filed another complaint this month with the IRS against the Rev. Jerry Falwell over a column endorsing President Bush on his ministries' website. Falwell, who also writes a column for WND, said the group was waging a "scare-the-churches campaign."
Has God struck Barry Lynn dead yet?
Liberofascists will stop at nothing to silence their opposition, period. The churches are merely the last forum where liberofascist PC speech restrictions have not yet been codified. DEMOCRATS WANT TO RESTRICT SPEECH IN THE CHURCHES. Keep spreading that truth...
The other project that needs to be undertaken is to register and get out the vote at local churches. It is estimated that between 43 million to 75 million people who consider themselves Christians failed to vote in 2000.
It won't cost the Republicans one red cent to get churches to register members to vote. All it takes is one willing individual and a cooperative pastor/board with some backbone. Of course, that's asking too much these days.
Pastor Floyd is standing on solid ground and he needs to stand tall. Lynn realizes there's not much he can do here but attempt to intimidate these pastors into silence. The Church in Pierce Creek NY which took out a full page ad in USA Today against Clinton back in the 90's lost their IRS letter ruling but didn't lose their tax exempt status. The court ruled that a church's tax exempt status is not dependent upon the IRS letter ruling.
First Baptist of Springdale is a large church (membership over 12,000) and Pastor Floyd is a prominent pastor. They're a big target and the ACLU, the dims and every other flavor of leftist nutzoid is hoping to silence this pastor and in so doing establish a precedent they can point to. From what I know about Pastor Floyd there's no way he backs down. Lynn is nothing more than a small yapping dog who has bitten off more than he can chew.
The Mainstream Coalition's agenda is clealry intended to scare churches into silence about Biblical Truth. But thanks to KS's Attorney General, Phil Kline, he has clarified what IRS regulations really say.
"Churches learn IRS do's, don'ts (The Truth Liberals Want Concealed)"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1173712/posts
I am waiting for Barry Lynn to file a complaint against Je$$e Jackson and other liberal non-profit groups.
No, I think that we should just stand for religious freedom.
Pastors should be able to say pretty much anything from the pulpit without gov interference.
The foundation for the tax exemption is not that the churches are apolitical, but rather that the gov doesn't tax God.
Of course Democrats would prefer to tax God, the ultimate rich individual, He owns it all.
Do not hold your breath.
It is like the ACLU saying that they find nothing wrong with the Islamic call to prayer being sent across loud speakers throughout the public square. You can bet that if a Christian preacher was on loudspeaker proclaiming Jesus died for your sins, the ACLU would have a major problem with it.
Until the Christian conservative movement goes into the street by the tens of thousands and demand this kind of thing stop..it will continue.
Churches link poverty, politics
"http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/9230967.htm?1c"
Time to fight back against this demon spawn of hell ~ tie him up in litigation with federal bureaucrats for an eternity.
I can assist someone one who wishes to nail Americans-United.... nonprofit mailing authorization as well.
Ditto.
The only way to implement effective reform is to spread the hurt around. As long as only conservatives are the ones complaining, then there will be no incentive to enact reform by the general public.
Unbelievable! It appears Mr. Lynn is trying to use the government to impose HIS religion on the rest of the country.
No, it's never different this year.
Just stand on your principles.
After all if the IRS does decide to revoke this church's tax exemption then the precident can be applied to all churches and even the Dims know that means all those black churches that they regularly campaign in.
If it comes to the point that pastors cannot teach and preach from the Bible in their church's without private and government monitors and interference then we've lost. It hasn't really happened yet but various groups around the country are attempting to impose upon preaching within the church standards which are opposed to the whole counsel of God's Word. At that point the church has been coopted by the state and is no longer able to fulfill it's biblical mandate. That is the ultimate goal of those on the left.
As you stated to those on the left taxes are the ultimate form of control and would symbolize subservience of the church to state.
Standing on principles is what got us into this over 50 years ago. We have sat back on our "principles" and allowed the Supreme Court and the liberals to run over us. No more!
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