Politics

Church and State

Pastors May Face IRS over Political Squabble

By Paul Strand
Washington Sr. Correspondent

CWNews.com – COLUMBUS, Ohio - Churches in times past have faced trouble with the irs for getting too involved in politics.

But rarely -- if ever -- did clergymen ask the IRS to come down on someone else's church.

That is just what is happening right here in Columbus, Ohio now.

Rod Parsley is one of America's most famous pastors, preaching on the hot moral and political issues of today to the 12,000 members of World Harvest Church.

Much the same goes on at Pastor Russell Johnson's 3,500-member Fairfield Christian Church.

Both men are leading Ohio conservatives.

But 31 Columbus-area clergymen thought that Parsley and Johnson had gone too far when it comes to politicking, and they asked the IRS in January to investigate and possibly yank the tax-exempt status for Parsley's and Johnson's churches.

Eric Williams' church was the site where the clergy gathered who have now gone to the IRS with a 14-page complaint, because, according to Williams, "We all shared the same concern that there were certain churches who seemed to be exercising undue influence in the political process. So we looked into it."

Williams added, "When we discovered...looked at the pattern of behavior...we discovered that they were in violation of the law."

Their main charges were that Parsley's and Johnson's groups have sponsored events highlighting just one candidate for governor: Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a conservative Christian; and that Parsley and Johnson are waging a partisan campaign to register 400,000 new voters to support Blackwell.

"Very specific activities, a very intentional campaign to highlight, to endorse...at least by implication...a single candidate," Williams said.

Williams and his colleagues are even requesting the IRS seek a court injunction to stop the churches' alleged political activities immediately.

Parsley said, "We have never in anyway endorsed a candidate for any public office." He pleads not guilty to the charges.

"We operate well within the Internal Revenue Service guidelines,” explained Parsley, “and all local and federal statutes in this regard. We wouldn't have been here 30 years if we hadn't."

Johnson said, "We do not endorse candidates. We do not give money to candidates. This is not a political PAC. But nothing in the Constitution says that Christians have to check their citizenship at the door."

Parsley says he is not out there just supporting Republican politicians. As he put it, '”We're not Republicans, we're not Democrats...we're Christocrats.”

And he said, "Our events here...Democrats, Republicans...they're all invited. It's not our responsibility who shows up."

Parsley says all candidates, not just Blackwell, are invited to such events.

The problem, as Williams sees it, is that, so far, only Blackwell has shown up.

Both Johnson and Parsley have also started up groups that do advocate taking measures against gay marriage and abortion.

Williams says the problem with these organizations is that they are really extensions of Parsley's and Johnson's churches.

"They all enjoy tax-exempt status. And that's really the heart of the complaint. If they're acting as a church, they need to honor the separation between church and state or they violate the law that talks about tax-exempt status," Williams said.

Jim Beattie teaches about the Constitution at Capital University Law School in Columbus.

"The law does not say to religious institutions 'you can't speak on political issues.' You can. But if you do it, you have to do it with your own money,” Beattie said. “You can't do it with tax-deductible dollars, because then you have an unfair advantage over other voices in the marketplace."

Why does this controversy in Columbus matter nationwide? Because it could have far-reaching impact on just how far any pastor can mix with politics before his religious group loses its all-important and oh-so-valuable tax-exempt status.

It could really wound a church like World Harvest with its $38.5-million budget -- which is why Parsley and Johnson believe that the IRS complaint is a politically-motivated attack from the left to break them or silence their voices.

"These people candidly are trying to intimidate people of faith: 'get back behind your stained-glass windows, get back into the pews,’” Johnson said.

And Johnson hits even harder, adding, "The religious left and the secular left have formed an unholy alliance, and that's a form of spiritual adultery."

But Williams say his motives are pure -- that he and his colleagues are merely out to right a wrong.

"It started really in the heart,” Williams said. “It started in the gut. It just didn't feel right as a religious leader."

And he denies they are all a bunch of liberals.

"We don't agree on everything,” Williams said. “We agree on this one single point, and that's what's brought us together."

Still, Parsley points out that these ministers never came to him first before going to the IRS.

"We'd have been glad to share with them and their concerns would have been immediately put at ease,“ Parsley said, “because these allegations are demonstrably untrue."

So he believes their main motive is to shut up powerful preachers and congregations who have been a huge force in affecting the politics of Ohio - and even the entire nation.

Because it was pastors like Parsley and Johnson who joined with Blackwell in 2004 to push hard for an amendment protecting traditional marriage in Ohio.

That ballot measure was so popular that it brought hundreds of thousands of new voters out, and they arguably gave President Bush the margin he needed to win Ohio, which ended up giving him his narrow victory over John Kerry.

Now Parsley believes that the left wants to stifle the Christian right's loud voice against abortion and gay marriage.

But he promised, "...we're not going to be silent when the time-honored institution of marriage is in jeopardy. We're not going to be silent at the slaughter of 44 million babies since 1973. We're not going to close our mouths about the moral issues of the day."

"You cannot endorse from the pulpit. You cannot give money from the church. But you can stand and say pro-life and marriage issues are important to Bible-believing people. We will not take the back seat of the bus," Johnson said.

And what does the candidate allegedly endorsed by Johnson and Parsley say? For one thing, he has admonished conservative Christians to not be bullied.

Blackwell said, "I tell people all the time, 'follow the rules and engage.' We have a right in this country guaranteed to us by the First Amendment, where we're told that Congress shall establish no law that prohibits the free exercise of faith and religion."

Beattie says that no one's denying churches have a right to free speech. "...But what you don't have is a Constitutional right to a tax exemption,” Beattie asserted. “This is a privilege. And it's a privilege that's conditioned on certain restrictions for the use of the money."

He says that if a church or group wants to endorse a candidate, it needs to form a PAC -- a Political Action Committee. Its donations are not tax-deductible, but they are legal.

Johnson and Parsley shoot back that they will not change a thing, that they are not intimidated by the IRS complaint from Williams and his colleagues.

"We have no concerns whatsoever." Parsley said.

But Parsley and Johnson warn that this is about so much more than just their churches -- that if the IRS investigates and punishes them, it could potentially have a chilling effect on every pastor in America.

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