Issue of Tax Abuse by the Christian Right, Heats Up [UPDATED]
The Washington Post has a featured story today, outlining the controversy in Ohio.
Two complaints filed with the tax agency say that the large Columbus area churches, active in President Bush's narrow Ohio win in 2004, violated their tax-exempt status by pushing the candidacy of J. Kenneth Blackwell, who is the secretary of state and the favored candidate of Ohio's religious right. Meanwhile, current issue of Church & State magazine also has an overview of the issue, by Robert Boston:
Efforts to build church-based political machines are also under way in Texas, Washington state, Kansas and other states. Boston also has a related article which describes how a church-based electoral mobilization is ramping up in Pennsylvania on behalf of incumbent Sen Rick Santorum (R-PA). The focus of the article is training session at the National Christian Conference Center in Valley Forge, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Pastors Network.
Although described as a non-partisan outfit concerned about "traditional values," the effort looks to be yet another attempt to forge a church-based political machine to help elect or re-elect Republicans. Among the featured speakers was anti-abortion militant Fr. Frank Pavone, whose Priests for Life organization is increasingly engaged in election related political activities. It is also a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that may be blurring the line between exempt educational and proscribed partisan electoral activities: "We are blessed to have a president who is able to and knows why he must and is convinced why he should nominate justices who don't invent rights out of thin air like Roe v. Wade did, but he needs a Senate, he needs a Senate.... He got the two nominees through that process precisely because there were not enough senators to support the ludicrous idea of a filibuster against a Supreme Court nominee. And the church of Jesus Christ, standing in midst of this culture of death and putting two and two together, has to conclude that we need to be part of the assurance that here in this particular place in this particular time this particular president needs the kind of support that he has today but might not necessarily have after November of 2006. [He] needs the kind of support that is necessary in order to get that additional common-sense pro-life justice on the court." Boston's articles show that there is a high degree of cooperation and coordination among the various Christian Right groups in seeking to mobilize churches as insitutions in order to get their members to the polls. That they are willing to bend and even break the law to do so, is evident, and provides another arena of challenge the rule of law in the U.S. These operations are building on years of organizing and refinment of the Christian Right modus operandi. Even as organiations, such as the once mighty national Christian Coalition come and go, experienced activists and strategists create new organizations to take their place. The quote above from Chris Hanna is worth repeating: "Our goal is for the Pennsylvania Pastors Network to be a permanent structure...". Update [2006-4-25 22:22:20 by Frederick Clarkson]: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) alleging that a get-out-the-vote training session offered by the Pennsylvania Pastors Network (PPN) may have violated IRS rules governing charities. The PPN is organized by four conservative organizations: Let Freedom Ring, the Pennsylvania Family Institute, the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, and the Urban Family Council. Let Freedom Ring is a §501(c)(4) organization and the Pro-Life Federation has §501(c)(4) and §501(c)(3) components, but the Pennsylvania Family Institute and the Urban Family Council are both §501(c)(3) organizations. IRS law explicitly prohibits §501(c)(3) organizations from engaging in political activities.Hat Tip: |