Sightings 9/29/08

Pulpit Freedom from the IRS

—Martin E. Marty

Less noticed than its law-breaking advocates hoped it would be, given the economic turmoil of the week, dozens of churches defied federal regulations and used their pulpits yesterday to challenge IRS regulations, which insist that tax exempt organizations dare not spend a “substantial part of [their] activities in carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation.” When this line was added to the tax code, the intention was not to target religious organizations but to deny tax-exemption to “sham” or “front” organizations which used religion to propagate a particular agenda. Also added to the code in 1954 by Senator Lyndon B. Johnson was a denial of tax exemption to organizations that “participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distribution of statements), any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.”