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Speak Freely

Legal Group Vows to Protect Churches' Right to Talk Politics, but Did They Get the Message?

BY ROBERT KUMPEL

On September 17, a D.C.-based "public interest law firm called The Becket Fund says they sent a letter to every church, mosque, synagogue or other house of worship in America, informing religious leaders and clergy that they had the freedom to speak about politics during services. The letter went on to promise that The Becket Fund would provide them with free legal assistance should the Internal Revenue Service threaten revocation of any church's tax-exempt status.

Jared Leland, media and legal counsel for the Becket Fund, says that the letter was inspired by past incidents of targeted intimidation by anti-religious groups. "Over the past 15 years, during every election period, the IRS along with other groups such as Americans United for the Separation of Church and State go ahead and send letters to certain groups, but not on a mass scale. Maybe they'll send letters to every Southern Baptist church and the next time maybe it will be every Methodist church in the New England area and so on. Ultimately, they threaten them with loss of their tax-exempt status if they engage in 'political campaign activity' — that's the language that's used in the IRS tax guide. They are saying, 'Do not engage in politics, do not discuss any political candidate or advocate on behalf of or against a political candidate. And if you do, we're going to file a complaint with the IRS and you will lose your tax-exempt status.'

The end result, Leland complains, is a nervous clergy and sterile election-year sermons. "They do this in a very crafty way, making it as vague and ambiguous as possible and what happens is, a chilling effect runs rampant throughout the country. I have personally spoken with several ministers and priests who have said, 'Based on these letters, I think we should just stop talking about political issues as well. I don't know where the line is, so we're just going to stop, because we can't lose our tax-exempt status.' Thus, they no longer discuss abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, embryonic stem-cell research and so on. So in 2000 we sent the letter out to a limited extent. But this year we decided that something on a more national level needed to be said. We needed to give ministers, speaking from the pulpit to their congregation, their microphones back. We needed to give them the backbone again to say, 'Not only is speaking about moral, religious and political issues something that even the IRS says is OK to do.' While addressing your congregation about any good faith sincerely religious message, you should be able to speak as you will, be it politically motivated or otherwise, whether it be for a political candidate or otherwise.' This is something that is so firmly rooted in the First Amendment and our Constitution that they are outside the scope of government intervention."

While the letter almost dares the IRS and other anti-religious groups to take on churches and the Becket Fund, Leland is confident that their position is sound and capable of standing up to any courtroom challenge. "Our entire legal team collectively did the research for this," he explains. "We are not encouraging or asking any institution to preach politics from the pulpit. All we're saying is that we have a grounded, well-founded, First Amendment, Constitutional defense that we would raise should an institution, by its own volition decide — for instance, taking the Catholic position — 'Yes, I need to instruct my congregants to believe in the sanctity of human life and in light of that, you must vote for a candidate who protects the sanctity of human life and that candidate is George W. Bush.'"

Of the four Catholic priests interviewed for this story, (all of whom asked to remain anonymous) none had any recollection of receiving the Becket Fund letter. One priest liked the idea, but has few reservations about preaching about controversial issues anyway, particularly abortion. 'It's about more than politics. Abortion is abortion and if someone thinks I am being political, that is their problem. I have to say what has to be said. If you tell people the truth about abortion they should be able to figure out who to vote for."

San Diego auxiliary Bishop Salvatore Cordileone was also contacted and he too had no recollection of receiving the letter and said he had never heard of The Becket Fund.

Several Protestant ministers were also contacted and none had any recollection of receiving the Becket Fund Letter. Reverend Silas Krueger, pastor of Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church in Carlsbad, remembers getting a letter with the reverse sentiment. "I did get a memo from someone at some organization who warned that you should not be speaking about politics from the pulpit. I didn't choose to follow that. We don't promote candidates, but we encourage our members to look at the positions of the candidates on theological questions such as gay marriages, embryonic stem cell research, and abortion. We happen to be against those things so we mention them very strongly with regard to theological positions. For example, we told them that Proposition 71 was just unacceptable because it encourages abortion and uses embryonic stem cells. We have spoken out against theological issues without endorsing candidates. I guess I'm just too crotchety to pay much attention to threats, but I just ignored the warning. I have to listen to my conscience and, hopefully, my conscience is formed by scripture."

It would seem that if multiple churches were taken to court, The Becket Fund would not be much help, as their legal defense team is limited to 10 attorneys. Not so, says Leland. "We have contacts with many generous attorneys throughout the country. We have attorneys interested in doing pro-bono work and other legal societies interested in participating. We sent out 300,000 letters. Just one percent of that is very scary percentage of possible cases. We deal with many pastors and institutions every day, who call us for help, but we have a substantial number of attorneys willing to do pro-bono services. The letter campaign and our legal challenges are funded by very generous individuals as well as family foundations."

Not surprisingly, many IRS complaints have been filed against churches for mixing politics with preaching. But so far, The Becket Fund though it has been informed of these complaints, has not yet been asked to assist. "Americans United for Separation of Church and State and these other groups will become aware that something's happened, and they will file a complaint with the IRS. For the most part, a lot of them just die there. Sometimes, the IRS has just begun to take action. They will open an inquiry and analyze the facts to find out what happened. It's at that point and in those cases, that we have now been in contact with those institutions, in preparation should the institution actually have its tax-exempt status revoked or threatened to be revoked by the IRS."

According to Leland, the few pending cases have not yet been resolved because the IRS has just begun its inquiry process. "What we have had, he says, "is pastors who have called and said, 'Thank you for your letter, because we've been afraid to even discuss issues.' Through use of the IRS tax guide, which itself says that it's fine to discuss issues; I tell them, 'Go ahead and discuss these issues. Even the IRS doesn't want to restrict you.' They often tell me, 'I had no idea. I'll go ahead and put it in my sermon on Sunday.'"

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