feh...
Posted on 05/19/2013 8:47:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It sometimes seems that everyone ever audited by the IRS – or even asked questions about a return – is claiming ideological harassment. Franklin Graham has decided that he too is a victim of IRS overreach. I think he’s a victim of something else: His lust for the media spotlight and his disgust with President Obama.
The son of famous evangelist Billy Graham has written a letter to Obama carping because ministries founded by this father, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse (a group that has received millions in tax dollars), had been asked questions about political activity by the tax agency.
An IRS policy that subjected Tea Party and other conservative groups to heightened scrutiny and extra paperwork when they applied for tax exemption has been much in the news. Few are defending that policy. Indeed, for many of us who have worked in Washington for a long time, it brought back memories of the bad old days when some political leaders tried to use the IRS to harass groups on the political left.
Is this what happened to Graham? Was he too singled out for his views?
In a word, no.
First, Graham’s ministries already have tax-exempt status. The problem is that the BGEA appears to be abusing it by engaging in improper partisan politicking.
Religious and non-religious nonprofits that enjoy the benefit of tax exemption are prohibited from intervening in elections by endorsing or opposing candidates for public office. Groups holding 501(c)(3) status can speak out on issues, but telling people who to vote for or against is unequivocally disallowed. It is statutory “zero tolerance” policy for electioneering.
Yet Graham himself acknowledges that the BGEA advised its followers to support only “candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles and support the nation of Israel.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
This clown sounds like the guys who blame their wives and girlfriends for “making” them beat them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Barry W. Lynn, Esq. (born 1948) has been the Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1992.
He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and a prominent leader of the American religious left. He is known to be a strong advocate of separation of church and state.
Lynn has appeared frequently on radio broadcasts and television to debate and discuss First Amendment issues, including MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, NBC’s Today Show, Nightline, Fox Morning News (Washington, D.C.), CNN’s Crossfire, Lou Dobbs Tonight, and Anderson Cooper 360°, The Phil Donahue Show, Meet the Press, CBS Morning News, ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and Larry King Live.
He was formerly a weekly commentator on church-state issues for UPI Radio, and served for two years as regular co-host of Buchanan and Company on the Mutual Broadcasting System.
Lynn currently hosts the radio program Culture Shocks, which can be heard on 1160 am in Washington D.C. and on several stations nationally including the syndicated Genesis Communications Network
The AntiChristian Bigots in the WashPost!
This guy obviously has no pony in this race. Feelin that progressive love.
I wonder how many of the black churches Obama and Biden spoke at during the election were sent letters by the IRS asking questions about political activity ?
Whatta laugh.
The chief protagonist of Atheism in America - the angry Bolshevik Barry Lynn gets a little respectability in the disreputable Washington Post.
Folks, he’s a joke. Barry Lynn is an anti-Christian nutjob who’s been laughed out of courtrooms all across the land after a few successes in the 1970’s.
According to him, America was founded by a cabal of atheist proto-Communists who only wanted to create the Proletarian Paradise, where all churches would become post offices.
That’s the best they can do? Haul out this re-tread?
Whatta laff.
Go do some research on the twenty-nine exemptions to 501C. This is a mess. Congress and the Senate basically wrote a bunch of groups into this....then said that IRS would write some questions to determine if they fit, and only then would permission be given to fall into 501C.
Even Obama Care wrote itself a category into the twenty-nine exemptions.
We invited this mess into our house, and unless we stand up and admit the tax code is screwed-up....it’s just going to continue. I think we will have to make the entire 2014 election about tax reform, and just settle on one key repair....flat tax for everyone, and tossing out seventy thousand pages of code.
Prove it or STFU.
Barry Lynn is a hugh d*ck from way back.
feh...
Why bother reading anything Barry Lynn has to say?
So says the pagan.
Bless Franklin Graham. Thank you that HOLY SPIRIT gives him boldness to impart biblical truth concerning the moral issues of our day. Give him favor, influence, and expand his territory. Extinguish every fiery dart that is formed against him.
Thank you for YOUR SON, JESUS CHRIST, WHO gives the victory.In JESUS name we pray. Amen.
The restrictions on political campaigning that had formerly applied only to secular bodies were then made applicable to religious groups.
For the most part IRS hasn't 'gone after' folks on that score for the simple reason so many of the Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners were actually active members of non-Christian religious groups and could fairly be accused of unlawful bias.
The fellow who for many years had picked out this, that or the other church for targeting left the agency within the last couple of years.
He got away with it by not going after entire groups or LARGE ENTITIES like the Graham operation.
The current deputy commissioner overriding that sort of thing appears to be less than smart.
Keep Franklin Graham in mind as IRS gets pressured to undo the LBJ modifications.
BTW, best way to pressure the regime here is to have the House pass a supplemental appropriation bill that eliminates promotions in grade, or time in grade raises, or bonuses in the entire agency until they can prove to the House and the Senate that they no longer engage in the offending practices.
Barry Lynn is not a trustworthy commenter on any of this. I can see flames licking up from his butt as well. The man is doomed.
These churches, large edifices or cramped storefronts, are well-known precinct outposts of the Democrat Party.
Easy registration for new voters are provided, bus rides to the polls are provided, marked sample ballots are provided.
Candidates are provided church facilities for fund raising events and for pressing the flesh, endorsements from the pulpit are expected.......and the endorsements are further printed in the Church Service fliers distributed the Sunday before the Tuesday election days.....well, you name the campaign activity, it's provided by the churches.
This has been going on for decades. The Rev-runds Jackson, Sharpton, Farrakhan, etal who rose to fame and fortune are not rev-runds for nothing. For decades, the church pulpits were their springboards to prominence and power.......and to this day remain their political soap-boxes.
Yet black churches (aka Democrat campaign headquarters) are tax exempt....and I'll bet they've never been harrassed, paralyzed or punished for political activity in any way by the SS-IRS....nor will they ever be in the future.
It's so EASY to be an untaxed partisan-party black church, to paraphrase Kermit the Frog.
Leni
My sentiments exactly. Nixon had an enemies list, and one of the charges against him was manipulation of the IRS. But it was nothing on this scale and certainly didn’t go down to little everyday citizens.
JFK and FDR were also well known for going after people through the IRS.
Barry Lynn is a real POS, a professional athiest portestor who calls himself a minister. He’s a big fav with the media.
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