Church Politics

Political organizations that enjoy 501(c)(3) statuts are prohibited from become involved in campaigns, but there are often reports of activities in particular organizations that appear to cross over the line. This issue has been in the news several times over the last few months as churches on both ends of the political spectrum have been criticized for partisan activities.  All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena was subject to an audit because of a sermon that raised questions about the war in Iraq.  See this post of the story of the audit and a link to the sermon itself.  Complaints about two conservative churches in Ohio--Fairfield Christian and Whole Harvest--suggest that the churches' facilities and organization were made available to help Bush and Ohio Republican Kenneth Blackwell.  See this post.   

In connection with the 2004 campaign, Republican groups contacted churches across the country to request copies of their membership lists to assist with partisan mailings and fundraisings.  See this August 2004 Boston Globe article.  Republican leaders are again attempting to collect church directories, this time by asking members to gather directories and forward them to party representatives.  See this story about the North Carolina Republican effort.  By getting members to forward directories to the Party, rather than the tax-exempt churches themselves, the Party hopes to avoid jeoparidizing churches' tax exempt status yet benefit from their ready-made lists of likely conservative supporters.  The Democrats indicate that they do not seek church lists--either from churches or members.

The IRS decided to investigate whether charities, including churches, engaged in increasing levels of political activity during the 2004 election season.  On February 24th, the IRS reported its findings.  See these links for the Executive Summary and Report.   A fact sheet provides guidance to 501(c)(3) organizations for the 2006 election season.

The IRS examined a small sample of organizations that had been referred to it for potential violations during the 2004 election campaign.  There are more than one million tax exemption organizations, and the report covers only 82 completed cases out of 132 referrals in respect of the 2004 election cycle.  The results in those 82 cases, however, are disturbing.  About 75% of the 82 examinations found some level of prohibited political activity, and 3 of the 82 cases were so egregious that the IRS recommended revocation of tax exempt status.   

The following are some of the types of activities that tax-exempt organizations (including churches) have engaged in:

• distributing printed materials that encourage members to vote for a particular candidate
• endorsing or opposing a particular candidate from the pulpit
• endorsing or opposing a particular candidate on a website
• disseminating voter guides that encourage readers to vote for a particular candidate
• inviting certain candidates to speak at functions
• making cash contributions to a candidate's political campaign.

Churches, of course, have been involved in politics in one way or another throughout the history of this country. They have sometimes acted as a negative force (supporting segregation in the South that I grew up in) and sometimes for the good (therole of the Quakers in fighting the evil institution of slavery). 

Economist Robert William Fogel chronicled four "Great Awakenings" of religious and political activity that have come during periods of ethical and p0litical crises.   Robert William Fogel, The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism (Univ. of Chicago Press 2000).  The First, beginning in 1730, helped provide an ideological foundation for the American Revolution by questioning established authority, although revolutionary leaders were less likely to believe in divine revelation than in natural rights.   Leaders of the Second Great Awakening in the first half of the nineteenth century  "preached that the American mission was to build God's kingdom on earth," leading to various reform movements, including the temperence movement, child labor protections, and abolitionism.  Id.  The Third Great Awakening (from about 1890 to 1930) reflected a growing schism between fundamentalists and modernists over the new urban centers, increasing labor conflict, and scientific advances such as Darwinism.  The new Social Gospel movement saw alievating poverty by favoring labor and redistributing income as the obligation of the state.  Id. at 24.  The Fourth, Fogel claims, is the political realignment of the late twentieth century when the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition pushed for political restructuring including opposition to abortion, support for prayer in schools, elimination of pronography and reaching out to economic conservatives by pushing tax reductions and smaller government. 

The issues identified by Fogel as part of the Fourth Great Awakening have also become closely identified with the Republican Party, creating a close linkage between the party and modern fundamentalists that has brought out voters who might not otherwise have participated in the political process.  Bush has encouraged this linkage through his "faith-based initiative," which has permitted more religious groups to accept federal funding to carry out social programs.  And various churches have been seen as closely tied to the Republican Party through the use of buzz issues like opposition to gay marriage.   

The question is how this close identification between political party, political movements, and religious positions can work in today's world.  Tax exempt organizations are generally permitted to engage in issue advocacy, so long as it does not cross the line into support for particular candidacies.   But that is not an easy line to draw, and will likely continue to generate controversy and require close monitoring of the most active congregations.  Yet close monitoring of religious groups runs counter to the most basic religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution. 

It is not clear that there is a good solution.  To comply with the law, churches need to be very careful to limit their role to educating about the issues and not about the candidates.  But to carry out their ethical duties, churches on both the left and the right may feel a great need to directly discuss the individuals who are seeking members' votes and how they interpret the most significant issues in political campaigns.