Hubris, Hypocrisy and the IRS

OK, for starters the picture has nothing to do with the IRS but after several weeks of typical Pacific NW weather a sunny day with a snow covered Mt. Hood is too good to pass up.

So where's the beef you ask? I was taken back by the hypocrisy and hubris of the IRS threats against All Saints Episcopal church because of a sermon on peace before the 2004 elections. Can you imagine that? A church talking about peace. What would Jesus say? My guess would be he would say good for you, it's about time. But to the IRS controlled by this evil un-Christian administration that was a NO NO. I didn't do a post on it because I was so incensed I was afraid of what I would write. Well the Oregonian's own Steve Duin wrote the post for me, Beware the IRS spook in the next pew.

I went undercover Sunday morning, only to discover my sleuthing ability isn't what it used to be. Tucked into the back row at SouthLake Foursquare Church, I picked out the pastor who's been fasting for 16 days. I figured out where in Africa the church will head next spring to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

But for the life of me, I couldn't find the IRS agent in the West Linn crowd.

And I know he was there. Not because Pastor Kip Jacob was preaching on "God's Eternal Investment Funds," but because the Internal Revenue Service is monitoring all churches to keep politics out of the pulpit.

Well maybe not all churches.

Okay, maybe not all churches. I don't think the IRS was paying attention when Lt. Gen. William "Jerry" Boykin arrived in uniform at Boring's Good Shepherd Community Church in 2003 and declared that God put George W. Bush in the White House.

There's no evidence the IRS followed up when a former Texas legislator told 3,500 voters at Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on the Sunday before the 2004 election that they should "vote for righteousness" and follow the advice of the Christian Coalition voting guides at the back of the church.

Look at that he even did the research for me, examples of the hypocrisy. While the above is OK, preaching "Peace on Earth" apparently isn't.

But the IRS is all over All Saints Episcopal, a liberal church in Pasadena, Calif. As the Los Angeles Times first reported last week, the IRS has informed All Saints it may lose its tax-exempt status owing to an antiwar sermon delivered on Oct. 31, 2004.

Tax-exempt organizations are prohibited by the federal tax code from endorsing candidates or "intervening in campaigns." This, I suspect, is news to the congregation at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, which heard the local archbishop step up last weekend and endorse Prop. 73, a ballot initiative requiring parental notification for a minor's abortion.

I'm sure the IRS letter to the Los Angeles archdiocese is in the mail.

There is a lot more so go read the entire op ed.