In the upcoming November elections many religious organizations will be preaching which issues should be the primary concern for voters. The response might not be as overwhelming as seen in presidential elections, but it is clear to politicians that the support of religious groups can swing the outcome.
Large groups like the Southern Baptist Convention are powerful voting blocks that candidates desire. On the thin line between Church and State, the IRS, in not so concrete words, bans nonprofit religious organizations from using tax-exempt money to participate in partisan politics.
By Stephan Puff,
Senior Staff Writer
In the upcoming November elections many religious organizations will be preaching which issues should be the primary concern for voters. The response might not be as overwhelming as seen in presidential elections, but it is clear to politicians that the support of religious groups can swing the outcome.
Large groups like the Southern Baptist Convention are powerful voting blocks that candidates desire. On the thin line between Church and State, the IRS, in not so concrete words, bans nonprofit religious organizations from using tax-exempt money to participate in partisan politics.
The preaching of political parties or candidates by religious groups undermines the special nonprofit status granted by the IRS. Groups under the IRS� nonprofit status are by law in section 501(c)(3), not allowed to endorse political campaigns. This does not violate the First Amendment rights of individuals since clergy can still endorse a candidate as long as they do not make this claim in affiliation with the religious organization, but as an individual.
In all the fuss, religious groups are still entitled to take an outspoken stance on civil liberties and politics. The pastor or priest can say abortion is murder and it is sinful not to vote pro-life, but to directly advocate political figures or parties who support this stance is illegal. An organization can change its nonprofit tax status if it believes the law to be unjust.
Religious groups argue the injustice of this rule, but they forget that nonprofit organizations receive such status because they are ideally providing a service to society. They are not partisan voting blocks or campaign headquarters.
If section 501(c)(3) was removed places of worship would become political battlegrounds instead of spiritual sanctuaries. They would be campaigning instead of providing spiritual service for the people.
The worst case scenario would be religious groups donating tax-exempt money that is suppose to be for the common good to political campaigns, like big businesses do, for favors. Or a more severe case could be a reinstatement of the Divine Right of Kings. Organizations could coerce believers it’s God’s Will that Al Sharpton is voted president. I�m certain that’s not even the worst case scenario.
There have been cases of nonprofit groups losing tax exemption for violating this law. In 1992, the Church at Pierce Creek in New York decided to run an ad in USA Today warning Christians to not vote for presidential candidate Bill Clinton. The ad said Clinton is �promoting policies that are in rebellion to God’s laws.� At the end of the ad, in a complete abuse of the tax-exempt status, they asked for tax-deductible donations to defray the cost of placing the ad.
Senators and certain religious groups have written proposals to change the current IRS laws, so that organizations may donate up to 20% of their income to politics. Moral and common sense issues aside, this would destroy campaign financing laws. Donating to a campaign is not tax deductible, however, donating to a nonprofit is. If a nonprofit can campaign for the candidate tax free, we will be seeing a lot more clergy preaching party politics from the pulpit and maybe Al Sharpton’s face on the bulletin.
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