May 20, 2002
House hears debate on church politicking
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--Democratic lawmakers appeared skeptical about two bills pending in Congress that would allow churches to contribute directly to political campaigns and endorse political candidates without risking their tax-exempt status.
___At a hearing May 14 by a House Ways & Means oversight subcommittee, church-state watchdog groups sparred with James Kennedy, a conservative heavyweight with an influential television ministry.
___One bill, sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., would allow pastors and other clergy to directly endorse political candidates. Houses of worship are allowed to host candidate forums and voter registration drives and even distribute voter guides, but direct endorsements can jeopardize tax-exempt status.
___The Jones bill has the support of 115 House members, mostly Republicans, and is being pushed by leading religious conservatives.
___The other bill, sponsored by Rep. Phil Crane, R-Ill., would change the tax code to allow houses of worship to spend up to 5 percent of their revenues on political causes. Currently houses of worship are prohibited from engaging in "substantial" political activities. That standard never has been defined, and the Crane bill would codify it at 5 percent.
___Kennedy, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said pastors are limited from speaking out strongly on moral issues by not being allowed to mention candidates. "It's obvious to anyone with half a brain that the free speech of pastors has been limited," Kennedy said.
___But Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said both bills would turn churches and other sacred places into political machine shops.
___"These bills would allow money to go straight from the collection plate to buying campaign bumper stickers and attack ads," Lynn said. "That is a vision as morally repugnant as it is politically unhealthy."
___While Republicans on the subcommittee appeared generally supportive of the bills, Democrats questioned their necessity.
___Internal Revenue Service official Steven Miller said only two churches had lost their tax-exempt status, and "four or five" church-related agencies had been prosecuted for violations.
___Kennedy said the IRS rules are "selectively enforced," most notably against conservatives. But Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., pointed to Vietnam, the civil rights movement and the Moral Majority of the 1980s. "It's not as though leaders of churches have been constrained from speaking about important moral issues of our times," he said.
___Rep. John Lewis, an Atlanta Democrat who worked alongside Martin Luther King, said King never felt the need to endorse one candidate over another. "You can preach the good news and tell the story, but you cannot use the church as a political platform," he said.
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