Ponderings

When Hillary wants to best Barack, she accuses him of “rock star” status and silver-tongued rhetoric. When Barack addressed 10,000 members of the United Church of Christ, however, the IRS was not star struck. The IRS issued a challenge this week that the rhetoric offered was political and thereby jeopardizes the coveted tax-exempt status of the church.

The United Church of Christ is a historic denomination with a small but fiesty voice in our current culture wars. Hailing from the Pilgrims and subsequent waves of immigration, we are proud of participating in the Abolition movement, the Civil Rights movement, the even the formation of the FCC. In this century, though, our numbers are pretty small. We have about 1.2 million members and 5,600 congregations compared to the Southern Baptists 16.3 million and 44,000 congregations. It’s really not fair to blame us for being excited that one of our own is effectively campaigning for President of the United States.

Barack Obama, however, is not simply a member of the UCC or a candidate for President, he is an inspiring speaker who speaks openly about the interconnectedness of faith and politics. Long before he declared his candidacy for President he was invited to address our denomination’s national gathering. Given his status at the time of the event, all due caution was taken to abide by both the letter and spirit of the law. Still, the IRS this week issued a challenge to the United Church of Christ that the speech and surrounding publicity might be a breach of IRS rules.

The IRS rules in question were authored by another Democratic presidential candidate, then Senator Lyndon Johnson (Texas). At the height of the McCarthy era, LBJ authored an amendment to the IRS code which effectively put a gag order on non-profit groups. Specifically, LBJ was working to keep a couple of prominent Texans from undermining his campaign. The legislation had, at that time, no intent regarding churches specifically.

As non-profit organizations exempt from taxes, however, churches are subject to the same rules as all other non-profits. Largely ignored by the IRS for decades, the role of the church in our political landscape can no longer be blithely dismissed. Cries for fairness from the moderates after conservative politicking has made liberal congregations vulnerable to increased scrutiny. All Saints Episcopal in California was targeted in the last election. Today’s news is that the United Church of Christ is the focus of this cycle’s scrutiny.

There are two approaches to the 1954 gag order. The first is to follow the rules. This is the path taken by most churches over the past half century. Carefully following the letter of the law, often skirting the intent, the stakes have gotten higher and the lawyers have made a hefty profit. Churches most faithful in their adherence, of course, found their influence dwarfed by those who pushed closer to the limits of the law.

Another approach would be to say “no, thank you” and pay taxes. There is nothing unconstitutional about faith based communities engaging in political discourse. Biblically speaking, we have a compelling mandate to do so. Our only prohibition is our desire to remain tax-exempt. We don’t want to pay. For this financial pass, we have largely allowed ourselves to be silenced.

Our denominational leader, the Rev. John Thomas, issued assurance of the UCC’s adherence to both the letter and the spirit of the law, but also highlighted what may be the more important concern. “The very fact of an IRS investigation, however, is disturbing,” Thomas said. “When the invitation to an elected public official to speak to the national meeting of his own church family is called into question, it has a chilling effect on every religious community that seeks to encourage politicians and church members to thoughtfully relate their personal faith to their public responsibilities.”

A third and timely approach might be to write a new law, but in the meantime if we’re going to play we have to pay. Quite frankly, I’m persuaded by Jesus’ “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”. The question people in worshipping communities must ask is whether what belongs to Caesar is our ability to speak openly or our fair share of taxes. Given our passion for a still speaking God, I’m more inclined to give the IRS my money than my silence.