A liberal Pasadena church on Thursday declared that it will refuse to comply with an IRS investigation into its tax-exemption status launched after a guest speaker was critical of President Bush in a sermon.
At a news conference attended by 50 cheering supporters gathered before the marble altar at All Saints Episcopal Church, the Rev. Ed Bacon said his 3,500-member congregation did not violate tax regulations barring tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing candidates when a former rector, George F. Regas, criticized the Bush administration two days before the 2004 presidential election.
The Episcopal faith, the 58-year-old rector said, "calls us to speak to the issues of war and poverty, bigotry, torture, and all forms of terrorism
All Saints Church: Stories in the Sept. 20 and Sept. 22 California sections incorrectly reported that the 3,500-member All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena is the largest Episcopal church west of the Mississippi River. The largest is St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, which has 7,573 members.
Joined by members of other faiths, he added, "We are also not here for ourselves alone but to defend the freedom of pulpits in faith communities throughout our land."
The All Saints case escalated a week ago when the IRS slapped the 80-year-old parish with a summons demanding that it turn over by Sept. 29 all materials, such as newsletters and sermons, produced during the 2004 election year with political references. Bacon was told to testify in person Oct. 11.
At stake, several religious leaders say, is freedom from government intimidation when churches address moral issues of the day from the pulpit.
In an interview, Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said, "Churches should not endorse political candidates. But the IRS is seriously out of kilter and wrong-headed on this one; it's an appalling intrusion and it smacks of intimidation."
Now, as the November election approaches, some churches worry that they may be the next targets of the IRS. This summer, the agency issued a statement warning nonprofits, including churches, that it was stepping up its efforts to crack down on illegal electioneering.
The Interfaith Alliance announced Thursday that it has started distributing 20,000 pamphlets to churches, synagogues and mosques offering advice on how to comply with federal law.
The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the alliance, a national group with 185,000 members, said that he was concerned that "the recent rush of candidates and political parties -- and their often aggressive tactics -- to reach out to people of faith lures religious organizations into dangerous legal territory."
