Churches Involved in Campaigning

[BierGarten]

I ran into this link on Drudge today of a pastor ripping, and I mean ripping, into Obama.  

youtube.com/watch?v=khuu-RhOBDU

A non-profit church is not allowed involve itself in political campaigns pursuant to the non-profit regulations.  Why is the IRS not clamping down on this type of preaching and yanking non-profit status from these churches?

[Conan71]

I've heard Carlton Pearson state his support for Obama standing in the pulpit at New Dimensions (Trinity Episcopal downtown).  Only as an individual, mind you, not as a pastor.  []

It's hard to police and a hair-splitting law much like the open-meeting law Recyclemichael was mentioning yesterday.

[cannon_fodder]

They actually did cut into some churches in 2006 for "campaigning" from a religious platform.  Religions can campaign as much as they like... but the non-profit status and regulation is different so they really need to watch their stuff.  They can criticize immoral behavior, they can remind congregations what the churches belief's are and they can suggest we need to elect official who uphold our belief.

But from there, it gets fuzzy.  They can NOT suggest nor of course dictate a candidate.

[hoodlum]

i know its an old argument, but if churches want to be involved in politics they should pay taxes.

[Wrinkle]

Now that the hiarchy of ORU has been reset and is old news, when are we going to get on to the Main Event.....the Randi Miller-ORU campaign initiative. Let the investigation begin.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by Wrinkle

Now that the hiarchy of ORU has been reset and is old news, when are we going to get on to the Main Event.....the Randi Miller-ORU campaign initiative. Let the investigation begin.

Thought that was ongoing. If not, it should be.

Randi Miller is dirty, the kind even a Karen Silkwood shower won't clean up.

[bugo]

I saw that video yesterday and that was the first thing that I thought.  This church's tax exempt status should be revoked immediately.  In fact, all church's tax exempt statuses should be revoked immediately.

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by bugo

I saw that video yesterday and that was the first thing that I thought.  This church's tax exempt status should be revoked immediately.  In fact, all church's tax exempt statuses should be revoked immediately.

Yeah, all that charity work such as feeding the hungry, providing shelter for the homeless, collecting clothes for the homeless, and caring for ill and ederly done by the church should be taxed. There is no free lunch in this country for this sort of activity.

[YoungTulsan]

I clicked the topic hoping we would be talking about tasty chicken, not religious institutions

Mmm, chicken...