Orange County pastors test the IRS rule against politicking

Unlike some pastors elsewhere who endorsed Republican John McCain during "Pulpit Freedom Sunday," the two ministers stopped short of explicitly recommending that worshipers vote for either McCain or Democrat Barack Obama. But they were not shy about raising politics in church.

Pastor Stephen B. Orman urged those attending his Warner Avenue Baptist Church service in Huntington Beach to use the Bible as a voters' guide and evaluate candidates and issues on the basis of Christian scripture.

The Rev. Wiley S. Drake suggested that those at his First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park vote for him -- and for his presidential running mate on the American Independent Party ticket, Alan Keyes.

Drake asked his congregation to support the challenge to the federal ban on political campaigning by nonprofit groups.

"I am angry because the government and the IRS and some Christians have taken away the rights of pastors," Drake said to about 45 people at his service. "I have a right to endorse anybody I doggone well please. And if they don't like that, too bad."

Orman told the 75 people in his pews that he shelved a previously planned subject in order to deliver what he called "An Election Sermon."

"There has been a movement going on to encourage preachers to preach about the upcoming election and even to come out and tell people who you're voting for," Orman said. "And perhaps even tell people who they ought to be voting for."

A conservative legal group based in Arizona, Alliance Defense Fund, said it planned to support ministers testing the Internal Revenue Service rule. Congress made it illegal in 1954 for tax-exempt organizations to publicly support or oppose political candidates.

Other clerics and critics condemned Sunday's actions by the 33 pastors in 22 states. They warned that pulpit politicking would undercut the independence that churches have had to speak out about moral and ethical issues.

"Pastors have a responsibility to the whole of their flock to provide spiritual support and guidance" but not partisan political advice, said the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

But Erik Stanley, Alliance Defense Fund senior legal counsel, disagreed.