Last fall, when church-state watchdog groups warned politically-active churches that overt campaigning for one candidate or another might cost them their tax-exempt status, conservative talking heads such as Jay Sekulow cried persecution at the hands of “left-wing thugs” selectively targeting conservative churches. A year later, the issue has resurfaced, but not as Sekulow so flamboyantly predicted. Instead, now that the IRS has gotten around to its political investigations, a liberal Episcopal church in California is the target and at risk of losing its tax-exempt status, though interestingly, not for endorsing a candidate from the pulpit, but rather for a sermon opposing the Iraq war, as well as tax cuts, on religious grounds. The church, the All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena, strongly rejects the claims of the IRS, which were based on a New York Times report on the sermon, arguing, “‘It seems ludicrous to suggest that a pastor cannot preach about the value of promoting peace simply because the nation happens to be at war during an election season.’” The IRS has offered to drop the investigation if the church admitted to “intervening in an election,” but All Saints declined the offer.
