[Mb-civic] Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning

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Wonderful, activist church, doing much good . . .
 
 
_http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-allsaints7nov07,0,6769876.story?coll=
la-home-headlines_ 
(http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-allsaints7nov07,0,6769876.story?coll=la-home-headlines) 
Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning
All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena  risks losing its tax-exempt status 
because of a former rector's remarks in  2004.
By Patricia Ward Biederman and Jason  Felch
Times Staff Writers

November 7, 2005

The Internal Revenue  Service has warned one of Southern California's largest 
and most liberal  churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status 
because of an  antiwar sermon two days before the 2004 presidential election.

Rector J.  Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena told many 
congregants  during morning services Sunday that a guest sermon by the church's 
former  rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, on Oct. 31, 2004, had prompted a 
letter from  the IRS.

In his sermon, Regas, who from the pulpit opposed both the  Vietnam War and 
1991's Gulf War, imagined Jesus participating in a political  debate with 
then-candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas said that "good  people of 
profound faith" could vote for either man, and did not tell  parishioners whom to 
support.

But he criticized the war in Iraq, saying  that Jesus would have told Bush, 
"Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war  is a failed doctrine. Forcibly 
changing the regime of an enemy that posed no  imminent threat has led to 
disaster."

On June 9, the church received a  letter from the IRS stating that "a 
reasonable belief exists that you may not be  tax-exempt as a church … " The federal 
tax code prohibits tax-exempt  organizations, including churches, from 
intervening in political campaigns and  elections.

The letter went on to say that "our concerns are based on a  Nov. 1, 2004, 
newspaper article in the Los Angeles Times and a sermon presented  at the All 
Saints Church discussed in the article."

The IRS cited The  Times story's description of the sermon as a "searing 
indictment of the Bush  administration's policies in Iraq" and noted that the 
sermon described "tax cuts  as inimical to the values of Jesus."

As Bacon spoke, 1984 Nobel Peace  Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a 
co-celebrant of Sunday's Requiem  Eucharist, looked on.

"We are so careful at our church never to endorse a  candidate," Bacon said 
in a later interview.

"One of the strongest  sermons I've ever given was against President 
Clinton's fraying of the social  safety net."

Telephone calls to IRS officials in Washington, D.C., and  Los Angeles were 
not returned.

On a day when churches throughout  California took stands on both sides of 
Proposition 73, which would bar  abortions for minors unless parents are 
notified, some at All Saints feared the  politically active church had been singled 
out.

"I think obviously we  were a bit shocked and dismayed," said Bob Long, 
senior warden for the church's  oversight board. "We felt somewhat targeted."

Bacon said the church had  retained the services of a Washington law firm 
with expertise in tax-exempt  organizations.

And he told the congregation: "It's important for everyone  to understand 
that the IRS concerns are not supported by the  facts."

After the initial inquiry, the church provided the IRS with a  copy of all 
literature given out before the election and copies of its policies,  Bacon said.

But the IRS recently informed the church that it was not  satisfied by those 
materials, and would proceed with a formal examination. Soon  after that, 
church officials decided to inform the congregation about the  dispute.

In an October letter to the IRS, Marcus Owens, the church's tax  attorney and 
a former head of the IRS tax-exempt section, said, "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."

Owens said that an IRS audit team had recently offered the  church a 
settlement during a face-to-face meeting.

"They said if there  was a confession of wrongdoing, they would not proceed 
to the exam stage. They  would be willing not to revoke tax-exempt status if 
the church admitted  intervening in an election."

The church declined the offer.

Long  said Bacon "is fond of saying it's a sin not to vote, but has never 
told anyone  how to vote. We don't do that. We preach to people how to vote their 
values, the  biblical principles."

Regas, who was rector of All Saints from 1967 to  1995, said in an interview 
that he was surprised by the IRS action "and then I  became suspicious, 
suspicious that they were going after a progressive church  person."

Regas helped the current church leadership collect information  for the IRS 
on his sermon and the church's policies on involvement in political  campaigns.

Some congregants were upset that a sermon citing Jesus  Christ's championing 
of peace and the poor was the occasion for an IRS  probe.

"I'm appalled," said 70-year-old Anne Thompson of Altadena, a  professional 
singer who also makes vestments for the church.

"In a  government that leans so heavily on religious values, that they would 
pull a  stunt like this, it makes me heartsick."

Joe Mirando, an engineer from  Burbank, questioned whether the 3,500-member 
church would be under scrutiny if  it were not known for its activism and its 
liberal stands on social  issues.

"The question is, is it politically motivated?" he said. "That's  the 
underlying feeling of everyone here. I don't have enough information to make  a 
decision, but there's a suspicion."

Bacon revealed the IRS  investigation at both morning services. Until his 
announcement, the mood of the  congregation had been solemn because the services 
remembered, by name, those  associated with the church who had died since last 
All Saints Day.

Regas'  2004 sermon imagined how Jesus would admonish Bush and Kerry if he 
debated them.  Regas never urged parishioners to vote for one candidate over the 
other, but he  did say that he believes Jesus would oppose the war in Iraq, 
and that Jesus  would be saddened by Bush's positions on the use and testing of 
nuclear  weapons.

In the sermon, Regas said, "President Bush has led us into war  with Iraq as 
a response to terrorism. Yet I believe Jesus would say to Bush and  Kerry: 
'War is itself the most extreme form of terrorism. President Bush, you  have not 
made dramatically clear what have been the human consequences of the  war in 
Iraq.' "

Later, he had Jesus confront both Kerry and Bush: "I will  tell you what I 
think of your war: The sin at the heart of this war against Iraq  is your belief 
that an American life is of more value than an Iraqi life. That  an American 
child is more precious than an Iraqi baby. God loathes  war."

If Jesus debated Bush and Kerry, Regas said, he would say to them,  "Why is 
so little mentioned about the poor?''

In his own voice, Regas  said: ''The religious right has drowned out everyone 
else. Now the faith of  Jesus has come to be known as pro-rich, pro-war and 
pro-American…. I'm not  pro-abortion, but pro-choice. There is something 
vicious and violent about  coercing a woman to carry to term an unwanted child."

When you go into  the voting booth, Regas told the congregation, "take with 
you all that you know  about Jesus, the peacemaker. Take all that Jesus means 
to you. Then vote your  deepest values."

Owens, the tax attorney, said he was surprised that the  IRS is pursuing the 
case despite explicit statements by Regas that he was not  trying to influence 
the congregation's vote.

"I doubt it's politically  motivated," Owens said. ""I think it is more a 
case of senior management at IRS  not paying attention to what the rules are."

According to Owens, six  years ago the IRS used to send about 20 such letters 
to churches a year. That  number has increased sharply because of the 
agency's recent delegation of audit  authority to agents on the front lines, he said.

He knew of two other  churches, both critical of government policies, that 
had received similar  letters, Owens said.

It's unclear how often the IRS raises questions  about the tax-exempt status 
of churches.

While such action is rare, the  IRS has at least once revoked the charitable 
designation of a  church.

Shortly before the 1992 presidential election, a church in  Binghamton, N.Y., 
ran advertisements against Bill Clinton's candidacy, and the  tax agency 
ruled that the congregation could not retain its tax-exempt status  because it had 
intervened in an election.

Bacon said he thought the IRS  would eventually drop its case against All 
Saints.

"It is a social action  church, but not a politically partisan church," he 
said. 

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