The Alliance Defense Fund, a Religious Right legal group founded by TV and radio preachers in 1993, has launched a national campaign to urge pastors to defy federal tax law from the pulpit on Sept. 28.
The ADF’s so-called “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” is a deliberate attempt to provoke the IRS into revoking a church’s tax-exempt status. If that happens, the ADF then plans to sue the IRS in federal court, charging that the tax agency’s actions violate freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
The ADF’s argument is on shaky ground, legally and ethically. (See more here: http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=179442,00.html). The good news is that the ADF’s reckless plan to politicize houses of worship is not going unchallenged. In Ohio, an interfaith band of clergy has urged fellow religious leaders to challenge the effort. The clergy have also written to the IRS, urging the agency to investigate the ADF.
The Ohio clergy, led by the Rev. Eric Williams of North Congregational United Church of Christ in Columbus, called on religious leaders nationwide to counter the ADF by preaching about the importance of church-state separation and the need for faith communities to be non-partisan on Sept. 21.
Joining Williams in the action were the Rev. Rebecca Tollefson of the Ohio Council of Churches, Rabbi Harold Berman of Congregation Tifereth Israel and others.
The ADF’s church electioneering project is also drawing strong criticism from three former top IRS officials. The former tax agency executives contend that ADF attorneys may have violated professional standards for tax attorneys.
The three – Marcus Owens, former director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division; Mortimer Caplin, former IRS commissioner; and Cono R. Namorato, former head of the IRS’s Office of Professional Responsibility – called for penalties against the ADF.
In a letter to Michael Chesman, director of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility, Owens, Caplin and Namorato requested an investigation of the matter. The former IRS officials charge that the ADF’s actions violate Circular 230, a set of professional guidelines that cover tax attorneys. Part of the code prohibits “incompetent and disreputable conduct,” and the ex-IRS officials say the ADF may have violated this standard.
“In the course of organizing and publicizing this [church electioneering] project, ADF’s staff of attorneys is inducing churches to engage in conduct designed to violate Federal tax law in a direct and blatant manner,” the letter asserts. “This activity – coordinating mass violation of Federal tax law – is clearly ‘incompetent and disreputable conduct’ defined in and subject to sanction under Circular 230. In our view, these ADF efforts present a direct threat to the integrity of our tax system.”
Americans United applauds the actions of the Ohio clergy and the former IRS officials. Their actions are already having a positive effect. The most recent ADF publications have included disclaimers insisting that the group’s project is not intended to run afoul of Circular 230. But it’s not that simple. ADF attorneys are urging their clients to break the law, which puts them in an ethically dubious position.
AU will continue to monitor this situation and will report any churches that take part in the ADF initiative to the IRS if the pastors take actions that violate federal tax law. To learn more about what you can do, see here.
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