IRS investigates pastor's Huckabee endorsement
At issue is whether Buena Park clergyman Wiley Drake violated the separation of church and state.
An attorney for Buena Park pastor Wiley S. Drake confirmed today that the IRS was investigating Drake's endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential bid on church letterhead and during a church-affiliated Internet radio show.
"Pastors and churches have 1st Amendment rights just like everybody else," said Erik Stanley, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund. "Wiley Drake has the same right to make a personal endorsement as anybody."
The federal government's inquiry comes six months after Americans United for Separation of Church and State urged the IRS to investigate the nonprofit status of Drake's church because of the endorsement. Stanley said the IRS sent Drake a letter of inquiry on Feb. 5. IRS officials declined to comment on the matter, citing privacy regulations.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said he was delighted to learn of the inquiry of Drake, a former national leader of the Southern Baptist Convention.
"It's always important when these blatant efforts to ignore the tax laws are investigated," he said. "When you use the resources of the church to promote a candidate, you have violated the strict prohibition in the tax code against intervention in a political campaign."
Shortly after learning of the Americans United complaint to the IRS, Drake called on his followers to pray for the deaths of the liberal group's officials, Joe Conn and Jeremy Leaming.
david.mckibben@latimes.com
