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June 18, 2008
Election Time
(Filed under: Church Business)Calling all 501(c)(3) organizations. In all likelihood, that is your church. And with that tax-exempt status, you lose the right to endorse a candidate or oppose a candidate. It's set to be a particularly heated and monumental election, so make sure to hold tight to the law regarding political involvement.
In case you do feel the community will respond positively to your politicking, this is a reminder to you that the IRS will not feel the same. Here's some beach reading from Big Brother regarding churches and politics:
- Tax Information for Charities and Non-Profits. An overview of what your church should know.
- IRS Reminds Charities and Churches of Political Activity Ban. An IRS press release regarding this particular election.
- Publication 1828. The nitty-gritty, boring .pdf of all these rules.
Being the object of the newspaper article titled "Local church loses tax-exempt status for political position" is in no way, shape or form a good marketing move, so be especially careful this election season.
Posted by Joshua Cody at June 18, 2008 10:27 AM
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Comments
There's more information about this from Americans United for Separation of Church and State at
http://www.projectfairplay.org/
Posted by: anon at June 18, 2008 11:21 AM
The supposed "ban on political speech" is more myth than reality. Check out www.alliancedefensefund.org/issues/religiousfreedom/churchandstate.aspx?cid=4491
If a pastor feels called to give a Biblical perspective on the issues -- political or not -- the IRS has no right to censor his sermon.
Posted by: Mark at June 20, 2008 5:56 AM
I have an article by Pacific Justive Institure on the front page of our online newspaper.
www.tcftimes.com
There are many things that churches can do politicaly.
Go to the site and click on the newspaper and it will open in pdf. You can also go to www.pacificjustice.org for information.
Posted by: Steve at August 10, 2008 11:52 PM
Thanks for the links... They have been very helpful. The VP nominee once attended our church, so we are trying to be very specific in what we say.
Posted by: Todd Stafford at September 9, 2008 4:19 PM
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