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Checking the Scorecard: IRS may be Cracking Down on Religious Right 'Voter Guides'
By Rob BostonTue Oct 23, 2007 at 12:56:16 PM EST
topic: Analysis of Christian Right section:Front Page printable version print this story
I spent the weekend at the Religious Right's "Values Voter Summit" in Washington, D.C. Sponsored primarily by the action arms of Family Research Council and Focus on the Family, the event brought together about 2,000 of the theocratic right's most hardcore activists.

As usual, it was chock-full of extreme rhetoric, partisanship and mean-spirited attacks on the far right's perceived enemies. I will have a full report about the event in the November issue of Church & State, which will be online at AU's website next month.

This post will look at a breakout session that took place on Saturday afternoon. The topic was churches and politics, and it was hosted by two attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). It was most enlightening - although perhaps not for the reasons they expected.

ADF attorneys Joe Infranco and Gary McCaleb mentioned that three or four churches recently contacted their group after receiving letters from the Internal Revenue Service because the churches distributed voter guides during the 2006 elections.

The IRS says that voter guides must be unbiased and cover a wide range of issues. Over the years, I've seen some guides put out by the Religious Right that should make any sensible pastor run away screaming. This kind of stuff always manages to make the Republican look like a saint and the Democrat a personal imp of Satan himself.

Infranco and McCaleb projected the IRS letter onto a large screen. It was not up there long enough for me to copy the entire thing, but I did get down one important passage. The IRS has expressed concern that these churches may have distributed guides that did not cover "a wide range of subjects, but were limited to controversial issues likely to be of interest to social conservative voters."

That's interesting. If the IRS is indeed cracking down on voter guides, that action is long overdo - it's also something that ought to be of concern to every religious leader in America. The IRS has long warned houses of worship about guides produced by outside organizations. Much of this material is produced by groups that have a stake in the outcome of an election. It has no place in church pews.

McCaleb and Infranco blithely asserted that the ADF will defend these churches and expressed confidence in their ability to win. If I were a pastor, I'm not sure I'd bet my tax exemption on that.

To give the ADF tag team some credit, their advice about pulpit-based politicking was generally sound, and they warned pastors not to use church resources to promote a candidate or make endorsements from the pulpit. I was a little put off by their claim that the penalty for violating the law has so far not been severe when applied to houses of worship. IRS audits, visits by federal tax agents and pastors being forced to sign letters stating that they will abide by the law in the future don't sound like a walk in the park - yet some pastors have endured these things for illegal pulpit politicking.

Non-church ministries have had it even harder. If you want to know if the IRS plays hardball, just ask the folks at Jerry Falwell's "Old Time Gospel Hour." That group lost its tax exemption for illegal political activities in 1986-87 and was required to pay $50,000 in back taxes.  

Finally, one word to McCaleb and Infranco: During the session, Infranco noted that AU staffers were at the conference - "they walk among you" is the term he used - and said the following: "Some time ago, Americans United for Separation sent out letters to, I want to say it was about 50,000 churches, if you're here and I have the wrong number please correct me, essentially threatening them saying, `You're going to lose your tax-exempt status if you get involved in politics at all.'"

That is a gross oversimplification of what AU's  letter said. AU's letters -- and for the record, we sent 117,000 of them in 2006 -- advise pastors that discussion of political and social issues is permitted and point out that there is a lot churches can do in the political arena. But the letter makes it clear that endorsement or opposition of candidates is not allowed. Every letter we have ever sent out makes that distinction. In other words, we're telling pastors much the same thing as the ADF. (Read AU's letter here.)     
How about you guys knock it off with the distortions? You do your cause no favors when you twist the truth like this.

And yes, we do indeed walk among you - because that's often what it takes to correct the misinformation the ADF spreads about us.




Display:
Can it be that we are returning to the rule of law?

by nogodsnomasters on Tue Oct 23, 2007 at 03:42:40 PM EST

I also attended the Values Voter Summit. I wrote a few comments here: http://schmitzblitz.wordpress.com/2007/10/23/my-weekend-with-the- christianists/

by efs5r on Tue Oct 23, 2007 at 08:52:14 PM EST
for your report, I will look for more installments. Motives are key to the program as always.

by Lou on Tue Oct 23, 2007 at 10:39:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]


I have always thought it revealing that Sun Myung Moon - who claims that he must guide Christianity into position from which they will eventual accept him as the Messiah and toward that end has spent billions promoting hard right theocratic politics in America - is the one who provided 30,000,000 "Christians" their voting booth marching orders from the church pew in 1988.

Keep in mind as you read this 1992 FRONTLINE excerpt below that Robert Grant the president of the American Freedom Coalition, said the 300,000 strong Moon front group was put together to gather the Christian "right" for political power. Also, Moon, who supplied the state and regional directors for the AFC, has called Grant one of his "three musketeers."

But first, in 1991 William Cheshire, who quit the Washington Times over a lack of editorial independence from Moon, described the American Freedom Coalition this way:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9008719207533458404&h l=en

[...] (Moon) is backing the American Freedom Coalition this strange mixture of moonies and fundamentalist Christians, who hope to organize at the grass roots and skew the American political system to the far right.

"far right"? that comes from Cheshire who worked for Jesse Helms. :)

Quoting FRONTLINE in 1992

Narrator: Moon has also consistently promoted a conservative political agenda in the United States. His efforts have not gone unnoticed at the White House. Douglas Wead was a Special Assistant to President Bush responsible for liaison with conservative groups.


Wead: "I'd say right now there are probably two groups among conservative organizations that really have an infrastructure, that have grassroots clout -- Concerned Women of America would and the American Freedom Coalition would."


Narrator: During the 1988 election, the AFC printed and distributed 30 million pieces of political literature, including these glossy voter scorecards.


Wead: "I think the scorecards and some of the independent literature published had an enormous effect. In fact, we had huge notebooks filled with published materials from a wide variety of organizations. The best was probably the AFC's. It was by far the slickest and the finest produced material. And when that doesn't cost you anything, and it is not charged against the campaign and is widely distributed to mailing lists across the country, that has a very important impact."
[...]


Narrator: We had hoped to ask Robert Grant about allegations that the AFC is violating federal law; namely, the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Just before World War Two, Congress passed the act, concerned that Japanese and German interests in the U.S. were influencing American public opinion. The act states that any organization involved in political activities and controlled or directed by a foreign principal must register with the Justice Department. It must also report on its activities and provide detailed accounts of its foreign sources of funding.


Narrator: Is the American Freedom Coalition a foreign agent? In 1989, Robert Grant wrote in the Washington Post that more than $5 million -- one third of the AFC's money -- came from "business interests of the Unification Church." Church officials say that their money comes from overseas -- primarily from Japan.


Narrator: Media analyst Brent Bozell is a member of the AFC national policy board.


Bozell: "If it were to come out that what the AFC is doing is being done at the direction of Reverend Moon, it would lose its fifty chapters overnight. That allegation has been out there since the day that AFC was formed and it hasn't stuck because nobody has come up with the smoking gun that he's done it."


Narrator: But Moon's influence over the AFC is underscored by this 1988 letter FRONTLINE obtained from a source who once worked within the Moon Organization. AFC President Robert Grant, writing to Reverend Moon, thanks him for investing heavily and "helping to bring the AFC into being." Grant concludes by telling Moon, "Without your leadership, vision and the support of your devoted followers, the AFC would not exist."


The imprint on the theocratic right by their "savior" continues today. One of his main political operatives, Gary Jarmin, the man who rented the room from Sen. John Warner for Moon to be crowned in 2004:
http://www.christianvoiceonline.com/about/gjarmin.php

Gary L. Jarmin has been a key leader and activist in supporting conservative causes and candidates for more than 30 years. He is well known as the author of the Congressional Report Card on key moral/family issues published by Christian Voice which many organizations had adopted and use today. Over 55 million have been distributed throughout the United States.
Mr. Jarmin pioneered the development of grass-roots political organizing techniques in the churches which many organizations emulate today.

Yes, Sun Myung Moon providing the "leadership" and "vision" to conservatism and the "Christian" theocratic right. Most American either think he is no longer around, a no count clown, or they have never heard of him and yet he has had more to do the move right and the theocratization of the nation than anyone.


by Lou on Tue Oct 23, 2007 at 10:31:37 PM EST

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(image: detail from Francoise Dubois' rendition of the Bartholomew's Day Massacre reveals the actual nature of religious warfare)

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