You really are clueless, and you're lack of cites, for instance, just
keeps on proving that. Here is a Huffington Post pickup from Reuters a
while ago that once again shows you talking through your hat (or some
other three-letter word):
* Tax status saved churches $145 billion over 10 years
* Complaints filed to U.S. Internal Revenue Service
* IRS received complaints in 2008 election also
By Mary Wisniewski
CHICAGO, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Political watchdog and secularist groups are
asking the U.S. government to investigate whether Catholic bishops and a
Christian evangelical group headed by preacher Billy Graham should lose
tax breaks for telling followers how to vote in this year's election.
Under constitutional protections of free speech and separation of church
and state, churches are free to speak on any issue. But they risk losing
tax breaks worth $145 billion in the past decade if they violate
Internal Revenue Service rules by promoting or opposing any particular
candidate. Other non-profits also have special tax status.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a political
watchdog group, in its complaint to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service,
cited reports of individual bishops "abusing their positions to advocate
against the election of President Barack Obama."
The group's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said some bishops went
too far by saying a vote for Democrats would mean going to hell. "I
don't think the Catholic bishops should be intimidating parishioners to
advocate for any particular candidate," said Sloan.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation complained to the
IRS about possible illegal political campaign intervention by Wisconsin
Catholic bishops and the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association.
IRS spokesman Dean Patterson declined to comment on the complaints or on
whether there was any investigation. "Federal law prohibits the IRS from
discussing specific taxpayers or situations," Patterson said.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, through its spokeswoman Sister
Mary Ann Walsh, said it would not comment on what a bishop says in his
diocese.
The Billy Graham group said that its newspaper ads in publications like
the Wall Street Journal and USA Today advocated votes for candidates who
support "biblical values" but mentioned no candidate or party.
The ads, signed by Graham, asked voters to back candidates who support
"the biblical definition of marriage between a man and woman" and who
protect "the sanctity of life," an apparent reference to the group's
opposition to abortion.
The conference of bishops waged a campaign this year against the Obama
administration's health care requirement birth control be covered by
health insurance.
Church doctrine is opposed to contraception as a means of birth control.
Church leaders also spoke out against same-sex marriage but were on the
losing side in four states where the issue was on the ballot.
THE POWER OF THE PULPIT
Nicholas Cafardi, a law professor at Duquesne University who worked for
the Catholic diocese of Pittsburgh, said some bishops seemed
particularly politically active in this election.
In Cafardi's opinion, the bishops' conference did not cross any tax-law
lines but some individual bishops may have done so.
"The larger issue is that, irrespective of what the tax code says,
churches should be sacred spaces, free of partisan politics," said Cafardi.
Among those whose political positions created controversy in this
campaign season was Springfield, Illinois, Bishop Thomas Paprocki who
warned his flock in a letter of "intrinsic evils" in the Democratic
platform's support of abortion and same-sex marriage. A vote for someone
who promotes such actions "places the eternal salvation of your own soul
in serious jeopardy," he said.
Peter Breen, executive director of the Chicago-based Thomas More
Society, a law firm focused on Catholic issues, said the complaint
against Catholic bishops was meant to frighten people of faith from
challenging their political leaders, which religious people have always
been called to do.
"That's not electioneering - it's merely making statements about public
concern," said Breen of Paprocki's statement. "He's not saying vote for
Candidate A as opposed to Candidate B."
Green Bay, Wisconsin, Bishop David Ricken made a statement similar to
Paprocki's in an Oct. 24 letter to parishioners, but later said his
comments "should not be misunderstood as an endorsement of any political
candidates or parties."
In an April sermon, Peoria, Illinois, Bishop Daniel Jenky said Obama,
with his "radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems
intent on following a similar path" to that of former Soviet dictator
Joseph Stalin and German dictator Adolf Hitler. The homily is posted on
the diocese newspaper's web site.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State urged the IRS in
October to investigate a Texas church that advised on its marquee to
"Vote for the Mormon, not the Muslim!" - a reference to Mormon
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Obama, who is not a
Muslim.
Conservatives were not the only ones getting support from the pulpit.
According to an October Pew Research Center report, 40 percent of Black
Protestants reported hearing about presidential candidates from clergy
at church, and the messages overwhelmingly favored Obama.
Americans United also complained in the 2008 election about a North
Carolina Baptist group that invited Michelle Obama to speak at an event
that they said appeared to be a campaign rally.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/billy-graham-election-irs_n_2119470.html