In election-year, IRS ensnared in politics of the pulpit

[USA11B]

In election-year, IRS ensnared in politics of the pulpit

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
Last Updated: September 30, 2006, 1225 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) - As the investigation of a liberal Pasadena church highlights, the IRS has become a referee in a struggle over religion and politics - a role some fear is straining the taxman's neutrality.

Months before November's midterm elections, the Internal Revenue Service promised to scrutinize speech in churches, with the potential penalty a loss of protection from taxes. Groups both liberal and conservative have responded by lodging complaints against adversaries they claim are increasingly political.

"Any citizen can form a group and spy on all these churches and report the results," said Ed McCaffery, dean of the University of Southern California School of Law and a tax law expert. "This entanglement of church and state vis-a-vis the tax laws is deeply out of control."

Churches have become important political platforms and forums for election season organizing. At the same time, they can't endorse or oppose candidates.

The agency saw a spike in complaints during 2004, the last national elections. Now, changes in how the IRS handles such cases could make it more vulnerable to political manipulation, experts said.

In Ohio, a group of pastors filed a complaint with the IRS against two megachurch pastors they accused of actively supporting Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican who is running for governor. And the IRS was most recently in the national spotlight last week when Pasadena's All Saints Church, an Episcopalian congregation, refused to cooperate with an investigation into an anti-war sermon a guest pastor delivered before the 2004 presidential election.

William Murray, who started the Web site in 2004, predicts the number of IRS complaints about politics in the pulpit will increase in two years as Republicans and Democrats hone their church-based targeting even further.

Murray said he collected more than 30 complaints against liberal, mostly black, churches on his Web site during the last presidential contest. He referred several cases to the IRS, he said, and has received two more during this year's mid-term contests. He also said he doesn't think the IRS should be used for partisan advantage.

"I actually believe that what I'm doing with this is wrong, but I'm doing it in a defensive nature," said Murray, executive director of the Religious Freedom Action Coalition. "Somebody has to defend the conservative churches and the only way to protect them is to attack the liberal churches."

The IRS will not say if it is investigating a church or charity and does not comment on cases that do become public knowledge. Yet those familiar with the agency say recent changes in the way it handles such complaints could jeopardize its ability to remain a nonpartisan arbiter.

Until 2000, the decision to investigate churches and charities was made by one of a handful of high-ranking regional commissioners. Now that decision is made by a lower-level administrator who may be less politically attuned, said Marcus Owens, All Saints' attorney and a former IRS administrator.

"What was not intended to be a biased audit program is at risk of becoming one," Owens said. "It's the raw material coming into the process (that) has already been distorted."

Steve Miller, commissioner of the IRS' tax exempt and government entities division, said that was impossible because each complaint is reviewed by a three-person panel before being forwarded to the administrator. The decision to investigate a church must also be approved by an attorney, he said.

He also dismissed concerns that the IRS would be influenced by partisan politics because of its complaint system. He said half of all complaints are immediately thrown out as frivolous.

In 2004, the IRS launched investigations of 110 organizations; of the 90 it completed, it found violations in about 70 percent of the cases. In 2005, the agency began audits of 70 churches and charities, which are still pending. It has 40 cases pending this year, a time when IRS officials have promised to redouble their scrutiny.

Reviewers rely on material gathered by outsiders. "I don't think anyone would want to see our guys sitting in the back pew," Miller said.

Despite concerns about the politicization of the IRS complaint system, many say the agency is still a crucial check that prevents religious organizations from becoming arms of a political party.

"This is the most overtly religious presidency in modern history and these churches feel they can get something from the government and give the government their endorsement," said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and an ordained minister. "If people are violating the law, it's the responsibility of groups to say this is not right and report it."
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Reviewers rely on material gathered by outsiders. "I don't think anyone would want to see our guys sitting in the back pew," Miller said.

This indicates that the program is snitch driven. Relying on the good will of the snitch?