This may be kind of a local story, so I don't know if all of you have heard about it. There is a church about 40 miles from where I live. It is a church attended primarily by people who tend to be politically liberal and has been for most of the last century. Shortly before the last presidential election, the minister gave a sermon in which he contrasted the views expressed by Bush and Kerry at a recent televised debate.
One of the points he brought up was that the US going to war against Iraq, a country that had not attacked us or posed a threat to us, was not a war that Jesus would have signed off on. He didn't go so far as to suggest that the congregation vote against Bush but I don't imagine that GW was presented in a very flattering light.
The interesting part is that now the IRS is seeking to remove the churches tax exempt status. I am not aware of the IRS seeking to remove the tax exempt status of any other religious institution on these grounds. If this is successful, the church will have to report all contributions for the last 2 years and in the future and pay taxes on them. They would also have to pay property taxes to the state and this would be a substantial amount. This will almost certainly drive the church out of business.
It seems to me that it isn't that unusual for churches to get pretty political. Jesus apparently told Pat Robertson that GW would win the last election and Pat passed the news along to the faithful. I heard some guy named Hagee on TV saying that the War in Iraq was ordained by God and we should do everything we could to support Israel and thwart Islam. There are Islamic mosques in this country where seditious activities are planned in the name of religion, nobody is lifting their tax exempt status.
I think the IRS may have tainted motives here. What do you think?
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