JUNE 14, 2004

GOVERNMENT
Pulpit politics: new challenges

Religion is already entwined in the 2004 campaign's most high-profile issues. Three developments are challenging rules that define how much influence congregations and clergy should have in political races:
• The Bush-Cheney campaign's effort to identify 1,600 "friendly" congregations in Pennsylvania whose members may be willing to help the campaign.
• Two U.S. House bills that would expand the ability of houses of worship to engage in politics.
• Some Roman Catholic bishops' admonition that parishioners should not vote for politicians who support abortion rights.

These initiatives underscore that religion will likely be a determining factor in the 2004 elections. Surveys have shown a widening "religion gap," in which Americans who say they go to church at least once a week tend to vote Republican, while those who go less often or not at all tend to vote Democratic.

Questions of pulpit politics involve a complicated mix of constitutional church-state separation issues, Internal Revenue Service rules on tax exemption, and campaign finance laws. ReligionLink offers resources for covering this debate.

Why it matters
Religious participation increases the likelihood that a person will engage in civic life, and most religious traditions encourage members to be informed voters. Yet Americans - and their clergy - are deeply divided over how much influence religious leaders should have in the political arena.

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National sources

PROPONENTS OF RELIGIOUS POLITICAL ACTIVITY
• U.S. Rep. Walter Jones Jr., R-N.C., is the sponsor of H.R. 235, (search for H.R. 235) which would keep the IRS from regulating what clergy say about politics from the pulpit. Contact Lanier Swann, 202-225-3415.
• U.S. Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., introduced language in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (search for H.R. 4520) that would allow churches to unintentionally engage in political activities up to three times per year and still retain their tax-exempt status. Contact 202-225-2915.
• The American Center for Law and Justice supports a congressional bill that would allow churches to endorse candidates. Contact Gene Kapp, media director, 757-226-2489.
• Roberta Combs is president of the Christian Coalition of America, based in Washington, D.C. The coalition supports the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act sponsored by Walter Jones. Contact 202-479-6900.
• Michael Schwartz is vice president for government relations for Concerned Women for America, a public policy group based in Washington, D.C., that supports a congressional bill that would allow churches to endorse candidates. Contact Rebecca Riggs, 202-488-7000, contact@media.cwfa.org.
• Tony Perkins is president of the Family Research Council, which supports church political activity. Contact 202-393-2100.
• Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform, which supports political activity by churches. Contact Chris Butler, deputy director of communications, 202-785-0266, cbutler@atr.org.

OPPONENTS OF RELIGIOUS POLITICAL ACTIVITY
• The Rev. Barry Lynn is executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which opposes church political activity. Contact Joe Conn, 202-466-3234, conn@au.org.
• The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Interfaith Alliance, has denounced the Bush campaign's search for "friendly congregations" as "the rawest form of manipulation of religion for partisan gain." Read his June 2 statement. Contact press secretary Don Parker, 202-639-6370 ext. 106, dparker@interfaithalliance.org.
• The Rev. Bob Edgar is general secretary of the National Council of Churches, which opposes allowing places of worship to endorse candidates. Contact 212-870-2025, redgar@ncccusa.org.
• The Congress of National Black Churches, a coalition of eight major historically black denominations representing 65,000 churches and a membership of more than 20 million people, has opposed allowing churches to endorse political candidates. Contact 202-371-1091.
• Mark J. Pelavin, associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said the Bush campaign's initiative seeking "friendly congregations" would "hurl a wrecking ball at the wall separating church and state, and it is America's houses of worship that will be taking the blow." Contact Alexis Rice, 202-387-2800, arice@rac.org.
• Khaled Saffuri is chairman of the Islamic Free Market Institute, which facilitates grassroots Muslim political movements. The institute has headquarters in Washington, D.C. Contact 202-955-7174, ksaffuri@aol.com.
• Bill Aiken is director of public affairs for Soka Gakkai International - USA, an American Buddhist association based in Santa Monica, Calif., that opposes a congressional bill that would allow churches to endorse candidates. Contact 301-346-0167, waiken@sgi-usa.org. A list of Buddhist centers around the United States is also on the site.

OTHER SOURCES
• Mara Vanderslice is the Kerry campaign's liaison for religious issues. Contact 202-464-2872, 202-213-7425 (cell), mara@johnkerry.com.
• Karl Rove is President George W. Bush's chief strategist. Contact the Bush campaign at 703-647-2700.
• Steven Miller is director of the IRS exempt organizations division in Washington, D.C. Contact media relations, 202-622-4000.
• Richard Land is president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and has said that if he were a pastor, he would be uncomfortable pushing the Bush-Cheney initiative to find support from "friendly congregations." He says he favors presenting information from all the candidates and telling church members to vote their conscience. Contact Kerry Bural at 615-782-8419, kbural@erlc.com.
• Stephen L. Carter is a professor at Yale Law School in New Haven, Conn. His books include The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion (Doubleday, 1994). Contact Stephen.carter@yale.edu.
• John Green is a specialist on religion and politics at the Bliss Institute at the University of Akron and a co-author of The Diminishing Divide: Religion's Changing Role in American Politics (Brookings Institution, 2000). Contact 330-972-6295, green@uakron.edu.
• Anna Greenberg is a political science professor at Harvard University. During a two-year period, she studied Protestant and Catholic churches in Chicago and Boston and says that churches help in the process of politicizing citizens. Contact anna_greenberg@harvard.edu.
• Louis Sandy Maisel is a political science professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and co-editor of the book Jews in American Politics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001). The book looks at the role of Jewish political party leaders, the historical voting patterns of Jews and the political role of Jewish women. Contact 207-872-3271, lsmaisel@colby.edu.
• Douglas Laycock is a law professor at the University of Texas who has expertise in the legality of religious political activity. Contact 512-232-1341, dlaycock@mail.law.utexas.edu.
• Kevin J. Hasson is founder and president of the Becket Fund, a law firm in Washington, D.C., that specializes in religious freedom cases. Contact 202-955-0095.
• Trevor Potter is president of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center and a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission. Potter says the Bush campaign's solicitation raised delicate legal issues for religious congregations. Contact 202-736-2200.
• Charles Lewis is executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization in Washington, D.C., that conducts investigative research and reporting on public policy issues. Contact 202-466-1300.
• Judie Brown is president of the American Life League. Her organization put out a list called the "Dirty Dozen" in which Catholic politicians who support abortion rights were taken to task for defying church doctrine. Contact 540-659-4171.

Background

IRS RULES
• Read the Internal Revenue Service's rules on tax exemption for religious groups.
• Read IRS rules for charities on political and lobbying activity.
• The IRS issued an advisory in April 2004 warning charities not to engage in political campaign activities in an election year. The IRS regularly issues such warnings in election years.
• In December 2003, the IRS issued a reminder to tax-exempt organizations that their public advocacy activities must adhere to both tax rules and campaign finance laws.

MORE ON TAX EXEMPTIONS
• Read the First Amendment Center's backgrounder on tax exemptions for religious groups, including FAQ and relevant court cases.
• The American Center for Law and Justice offers a resource page on churches' tax-exempt status. ACLJ has frequently argued in court for the right of churches to engage in politics.

Legislation

AMERICAN JOBS CREATION ACT OF 2004
• A provision was recently added to the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (search for H.R. 4520) that would allow the IRS to fine tax-exempt religious groups for political activity. Churches could unintentionally engage in political activities up to three times per year and still retain their tax-exempt status. Under current rules, the IRS either grants or revokes tax exemptions, with no in between. The language was inserted by U.S. Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif.
• Read a June 10, 2004, Washington Post story (registration required) about opposition from both liberal and conservative religious groups to new language in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004.
• Read a June 8, 2004, Associated Press story posted by the First Amendment Center about Congress' options for easing penalties on places of worship that engage in politics.
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State warns in a June 8, 2004, news release that two sections of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 deal not with jobs but with partisan politicking by churches.

HOUSES OF WORSHIP FREE SPEECH RESTORATION ACT
• U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., introduced H.R. 235 (search for H.R. 235) on Jan. 8, 2003. The bill, which has 165 co-sponsors, would ban the IRS from regulating what clergy say from pulpits. Jones introduced similar legislation, The Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act, in 2002, which was defeated in a House vote. (See a March 4, 2002, ReligionLink tip about the bill.)
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which opposes the legislation, answers FAQ on the bill.
• A November 2003 OMB Watch advisory provides a list of co-sponsors for H.R. 235 and a list of religious groups opposed to the legislation. OMB Watch, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting government accountability and citizen participation in public policy decisions, opposes the legislation.

IRS cases

NEW CASES CHALLENGING RELIGIOUS GROUPS' TAX-EXEMPT STATUS
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Colorado Springs. The group cited Bishop Michael Sheridan's church letter asking congregants who vote for pro-choice politicians to refrain from communion. Read a May 28, 2004, Associated Press story posted by the First Amendment Center. Read the Americans United news release.

PAST CASES WHERE RELIGIOUS GROUPS' TAX-EXEMPT STATUS HAS BEEN REVOKED OR CHALLENGED
• The IRS asked the Rev. Floyd Flake to sign a document promising that he would not use his pulpit for politics after Vice President Al Gore visited the 15,000-member Greater Allen Cathedral of New York in Jamaica in 2000. Americans United for Separation of Church and State asked the IRS to investigate because Flake's introduction of Gore was considered a political endorsement. The IRS said if Flake did not sign the document, the church would lose its tax-exempt status. Read a Feb. 14, 2000, Americans United press release.
• The IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of the Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton, N.Y., in 1995 after it placed newspaper ads calling for the defeat of Bill Clinton. Read a May 15, 2000, Freedom Forum Online article posted by the First Amendment Center. Read a Charisma News Service story posted by Beliefnet.com about how the resulting court ruling helped define how places of worship can act politically. Read an Associated Press story posted by Beliefnet.com about an appeals court affirming the ruling.
• After a decade-long battle, the IRS concluded in 1999 that the Christian Coalition should not be tax-exempt because of its distribution of voter guides in churches. Read a June 11, 1999, First Amendment Center story. Read a June 11, 1999, Washington Post story.
• In 1970, Bob Jones University lost its tax-exempt status because it wouldn't admit black students. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 refused to restore the university's tax-exempt status, citing the fact that Bob Jones maintained a ban on interracial dating. Read the Supreme Court opinion. The university dropped the dating policy in 2000 after George W. Bush made a campaign stop there, causing a political stir. Read a March 5, 2000, Cyberspace News Service story.

Other background

• Read a June 3, 2004, New York Times story about the Bush-Cheney campaign seeking "friendly" congregations in Pennsylvania.
• Read a June 2, 2004, USA Today story about the "religion gap" between Republicans and Democrats.
• Read a May 27, 2004, Independent News story posted by Zogby International about H.R. 235.
• Read a Feb. 23, 2004, Cybercast News Service story about conservative Christians who say that churches' tax-exempt status could be challenged if same-sex marriage is sanctioned by the government.

POLLS
• A November 2003 poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found a widening religion gap between Republicans and Democrats. See a Feb. 2, 2004, ReligionLink tip about the poll.
• A January 2004 O'Leary Report/Zogby International Values Poll found that almost 60 percent of likely voters surveyed say it's important for a president to believe in God and be deeply religious while also having the backing of most Americans on how he is managing the economy and foreign policy. Read a Jan. 9, 2004, Religion News Service story posted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
• A July 24, 2003, poll by the Pew Research Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that roughly half (52 percent) of Americans support the idea of churches expressing opinions on the issues of the day, while 44 percent are opposed. If clergy do speak out on political matters, most people think they should express their own views, even if most members of their congregations disagree with them.
• A 2002 Gallup/Interfaith Alliance poll of 300 clergy found that 77 percent believed they should not endorse political candidates. Fifty-nine percent of those participating in the poll identified themselves as evangelical. Read a May 14, 2002, Interfaith Alliance news release.
• The 2001 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey of civic involvement, done in 40 communities across the country, showed that people with religious involvement are active in their communities and that they are a huge pool of resources for communities. It also notes that religion can be a double-edged sword, capable of both producing and healing social division.