IRS: Churches can't pray for Bush victory

Wrld Net Daily ^ | 10-28-04 | Ron Strom

[hope]

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Thursday, October 28, 2004

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TESTING THE FAITH
IRS: Churches can't pray for Bush victory
Ruling says tax-exempt groups prohibited from asking God to intervene

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Posted: October 28, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Ron Strom

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© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

In a letter of clarification requested by a traveling minister, the Internal Revenue Service has declared people gathered in tax-exempt churches can't pray for President Bush to win the election on Tuesday.

The ruling comes in response to a request by the Christian Defense Coalition, which is in the midst of a 15-day prayer tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the organization, had planned to lead in prayer for a Bush victory during evening services in each town. Though he had hoped to hold the services in churches, Mahoney says he has used American Legion halls, hotels and other venues pending a clarification from the IRS.

The American Center for Law and Justice wrote the letter to the IRS on behalf of the Mahoney's group, explaining that the pastor planned to "offer prayer during the evening services in the churches he visits that God grants President Bush four more years as president and that Senator Kerry does not become president."

"This is rank censorship," Mahoney told WND. "If churches felt compelled to pray for Senator Kerry, they should be able to do that, too.

"Now we have the IRS not only limiting what can said behind a pulpit in terms of electioneering, but churches aren't even allowed to pray the dictates of their consciences."

Mahoney said he would consider legal action against the IRS, saying churches that had considered hosting the tour were unable to do so. He also said he considers his First Amendment rights to have been violated.

Reaction to the IRS ruling, Mahoney predicts, will include "massive anger" in the Christian community.

"Our organization, along with the American Center for Law and Justice, is going to make this a major issue," he said.

Mahoney considers the ruling a "much greater leap into censorship" than the prohibition on endorsing candidates from church pulpits.

"You hear people talk about the separation of church and state," he said. "This is a massive violation of the separation of church and state from the standpoint of the government intruding on the private dictates of churches."

Under IRS regulations, churches that are tax-exempt organizations cannot openly advocate for candidates for office and can only use a small percentage of their budgets on political activity.

As WorldNetDaily reported, an concerted effort is under way to get the IRS to crack down on churches that might push certain candidates or parties. In July, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, headed by Barry Lynn, filed a complaint with the IRS against Ronnie Floyd, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Springdale, Ark., accusing him of preaching a sermon promoting President Bush's re-election July 4.

Related stories:

Political snitches monitor sermons

Democrats back church IRS probe

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Ron Strom is a news editor for WorldNetDaily.com.

[GeronL]

The reporter told me, via e-mail, that this was a letter directly to Mahoney and not a 'public' report.

whatever that means

[Alouette]

I just applied for 501c(3) (tax exempt) status for my Jewish History foundation. One of the requirements for 501c(3) is that a tax-exempt non-profit organization is prohibited from endorsing any political candidates.

There are liberal 501c(3) organizations like http://www.ncjw.org who devote their entire time and resources to promote candidates who are pro-abortion and pro-gay. They are not allowed to do so according to IRS regulations, but they get away with it, while conservative 501c(3) orgs are more rigidly scrutinized.

[Californiajones]

Hi, very very VERY interesting information. But who is "Mr. Silverback"? I take special exception as a female to that distinction...!

[Sam Cree]

I used to read the Religious Action Center (Reform Judaism) website, which gives their political positions. Most of the time, they might as well be another arm of the Democratic Party.

But what used to get me about the website is that every leftist position they posted was backed up with one or more specific passages from the Torah. This by an organization that purports to be concerned about "separation of church and state." Irony, I guess.

[MarkL]

This is a very touchy subject...

It does NOT violate the sep of Church and State, since they (the IRS) are NOT saying that the Church can't pray for President Bush to win.

What they're saying is that the Church is free to do what ever they want, but if they're pushing for a political cantidate, they will lose their tax exempt status.

And of course, the power to tax is the power to destroy.

Mark

[RoseD]

No free speech in churches, if ScarryKerrry if elected!

[RoseD]

No free speech in churches, if ScarryKerrry is elected!

[Robert Drobot]

Our Lady of La Salette is the name given to an apparition of the Virgin Mary who appeared to two shepherd children--Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat--near the mountaintop village of La Salette, near Grenoble, France in 1846.

It is one of the most important Marian sanctuaries in the world. There are at least four striking similarities with the later visions of Fatima, Portugal in 1917: the apparition was short and dressed in strange clothes; she appeared to illiterate children; there was a message of violent destruction of humanity if they did not repent; and there was the deliverance of a secret that was supposed to be kept and revealed to the Pope later.

There are some who even believe that the true secret is too frightening to be revealed. Melanie Calvat became a controversial figure--refusing to play the role of the serene nun hidden away in a cloister--and isolated herself from the official Church. She was a rebel and had no patience for the world of priests, bishops, and popes.

When she revealed in a tract in 1858 that the secret said, among many other apocalyptical predictions, that "Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist", Melanie Calvat was summarily ostracized and her works put on the Index of Prohibited Books.

Perhaps it was this final, controversial ending to the events of this famous vision that caused La Salette to lose its glory and fall back into the slumber of a minor site of Catholic pilgrimage. -- Our Lady of La Salette

"I address an urgent appeal to the earth: I summon the true disciples of God who lives and reigns in heaven; I summon the true imitators of Christ made man, the one true Savior of men; I summon My children, My true devotees, those who have given themselves to Me so that I might lead them to My divine Son, those whom I carry, so to speak, in My arms, those who have lived according to My spirit; finally, I summon the Apostles of the Latter Times, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in scorn of the world and of themselves, in poverty and in humility, in contempt and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world. It is time for them to arise and come forth to enlighten the earth." "Go, and show yourselves as My cherished children; I am with you and in you, provided that your faith be the light that enlightens you in these days of woe. May your zeal cause you to be as famished for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ. Fight, children of light, you little number who see; for behold the time of times, the end of ends." -- Apparition of Our Lady at La Salette

This message is, IMHO directed to the faithful who have a reverence for the Sacred Dogma and Tradition of the One True Church.

[Robert Drobot]

A great website. Thank you.

[Californiajones]

How does one live according to the "spirit" of Mary? And how does the "spirit" of Mary (who was NOT God) live inside of a person? This claim is reserved for Jesus alone. We are warned by St John against adding anything to the Word of God in Revelations and by Moses in Deuteronomy. I'm confused by this spooky nonsensical spiritual-sounding phraseology. Sounds so new age, and a little like the book of Mormon.

We are sternly warned by Paul against apparitions of any kind that do not proclaim the same Gospel of Jesus as in the New Testament. ("Be forewarned that even if an angel of light comes to you proclaiming another gospel, let them be accursed!" My paraphrase of Galatians) Mary, the mother of Jesus, went to the upper room on the day of Pentecost and saw the infilling of the Holy Spirit as prophesied by the prophet Joel. She has no power to indwell in our hearts. I don't get it at all. Where is this kind of message confirmed in the Bible and what does this have to do with the IRS?

[Coleus]

wasn't your uncle a brother in this religious order?

[hershey]

Uh, how come the RATs can raise money, power, voters, etc. from black churches for Kerry? Oh, that's right. It's a one way street.

[diss-a-lib]

Hey M.A.P., speaking of LBJ, did you know that he, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and his wife Lady Bird Johnson, had a son that they named... Bird Baines Johnson. Sorry I could not resist!

[diss-a-lib]

Hey M.A.P., speaking of LBJ, did you know that he, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and his wife Lady Bird Johnson, had a son that they named... Bird Baines Johnson. Sorry I could not resist!

[Happy2BMe]

GREAT POST - BTT!

[thor76]

Where are the bishops?

Well, they are not praying for the conversion of our politicians - that is for sure! I can tell you where you will probably find them.....

At the golf course, at fancy restaurants, being fawned over by the politicos/media/and liberal gliteratti.....

They can also be found in the masonic lodges, in the fleshpots of the Carribean, and of Europe. They can be found consorting with gay clergy, politicians, and media/entertainment figures.

But the one place that you will not find 99% of them is prostrate on the floor of a church in prayer for themselves, for the sins of the world......in reperation.

And becuase of this, we will suffer much.

[Kitty Mittens]

O Father my King,

I bow before Your Glorious Throne with my sister Dansy in earnest prayer and supplication to Thee, our King Who Rules in Righteousness over the affairs and souls of men. We plead, Merciful Master, for Your Divine Intervention in our Nation's Very Life, as it plunges further and further into the Abyss of Ungodliness and Perversion. The Liberal Secularists have turned an entire Generation away from You, in the process ripping our Nation from its Godly Heritage, from the Rock upon which it was founded by our Godly Ancestors. And now we as a Nation are turning another corner; Your enemies are trying to prohibit Your children from praying!

Lord of Glory, we cry out to You! We plead for Divine Destruction of the Evil Blueprint of Secularism and Atheism that has been forced upon us against our will, and we supplicate fervently for Revival, Genuine Revival, to be granted to our backslidden Nation! Bind satan and his minions, Dear Father our King, and send Your Blessed Holy Spirit to open many closed hearts to the Gospel of our Christ, sweeping away the Spiritual Blindness that has a stranglehold upon our great and beloved Nation.

Remove from power, our Sovereign Holy One, these wicked servants of Belial, and may all who seek the destruction of our dear America be themselves destroyed! We earnestly cry out to Thee, Sovereign Master, save our Nation!Restore unto us the Godliness our ancestors enjoyed so long ago, and we will give You all the Honor and all the Praise for Your Merciful, Gracious Intervention, O King! Protect and Strengthen our dear President, Sovereign Master, and grant us four more years of his Righteous Rule, through Grace. We Worship You, our Precious Savior, and Adore You for Your Glorious Majesty, praying in the Name of our Sweet King Jesus Christ, amen.

[MissAmericanPie]

ROFL, it wouldn't surprise me.

[ApesForEvolution]

This could well be the most significant post you've ever pinged me too...God bless you and yours very richly.

[Caipirabob]

Not listening.