Sound The Trumpet : The IRS Sets Its Sites on a New Target: Churches

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“The IRS Sets Its Sites on a New Target: Churches”
by Prophecy New Watch
August 7th, 2014

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has never been a beloved institution in America. Since its inception in 1913, following the passage of the 16th Amendment, the IRS has been the subject of jokes by comedians and generally viewed with a range of fear to loathing by the American people. Over the years, there have been many accounts of families and businesses being destroyed by the monolithic government institution, and April 15th has become a day of great stress to most Americans.

In the recent past, the IRS has been involved in a scandal involving its targeting of conservative political groups for heightened scrutiny. This has led to a Congressional investigation and the resignation of the head of the IRS, as well as allegations of destruction of evidence related to the scope of the Congressional probe (specifically, emails by Lois Lerner). Some of these emails have surfaced, showing a deep animus towards conservative groups, calling them "crazies" and "whackos". In fact, it has come out that she personally oversaw the audit of some of the conservative groups.

With this backdrop of clear discrimination against conservative groups, it has now come to light that the IRS reached an agreement with a rapidly anti-Christian group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation that establishes specific protocols in targeting Christian churches to heightened scrutiny related to their tax exempt status. The FFRF wants to eliminate religion from the public sector. Deeming itself the "largest freethought association in North America", the Freedom From Religion Foundation describes its goal as one that "works to education the public on matters relating to nontheism, and to promote the constitutional principle of separation between church and state". Of course, the FFRF apparently is unaware of the fact that there is nothing "constitutional" about "separation of church and state", given that the phrase is not in the Constitution.

This agreement came out of a recent lawsuit by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Freedom From Religion Foundation v Koskinen, which alleged that the IRS was not doing enough to stop political speech by churches that the FFRF referred to as "rogue churches". The anti-Christian organization argued that the IRS wasn't doing enough to investigate these churches, and wanted a stricter policy by the IRS to target churches that were engaging in speech that could be deemed political in nature.

To settle the lawsuit, the IRS agreed to a set of protocols to use to investigate churches, to determine if they were engaging in political speech. The specifics of these protocols have not been released to the public and are the subject of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the Alliance Defending Freedom. The ADF is a pro-Christian, conservative organization that describes itself as an "alliance-building legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith". They routinely defend against laws and regulations that limit the right of people to exercise their faith.

The IRS regulation relates to the non-profit status afforded to churches (as well as other nonprofit organizations) under 26 US § 501(c)(3), commonly called 501(c)(3). This tax provision allows for the recognition of nonprofit groups, including churches, to be free from any tax on the money they take in for their ministries, provided that they meet the necessary criteria. There is also the following prohibition in the statute that is specific to the lawsuit in question by the FFRF:

(iv) the organization does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to any candidate for public office.

The FFRF argues that there are some churches who do engage in political speech, either endorsing a candidate or speaking out against a candidate. They refer to these as "rogue churches". Of course, given their liberal, anti-Christian bias, they are seeking to restrain conservative churches that are speaking out against matters that directly relate to the Gospel, such as the murder of unborn children.

While the above-quoted provision in the federal statue on nonprofits is open to interpretation, the ADF has expressed some concern on how it will be administered. Christina Holcomb, ADF's counsel involved in the FOIA request, stated that "secrecy breeds mistrust", while issuing a call for the IRS to "bring into the light of day" how it intends to investigate churches. Understandably, the ADF is concerned specifically about how the IRS determines which churches to bring under heightened scrutiny and what it will do if it finds these churches in violation of its new nebulous protocols.

The wording of the provision of non-interference with political campaigns could certainly be applied to "churches", such as Obama's former congregation in Chicago, which actively engages in inflammatory political rhetoric. There are a number of "churches" that also have invited liberal politicians, such as Al Gore and Jesse Jackson, to speak at their churches. These events have been recorded going into a very political direction.

However, given the outright hostility that the IRS has shown conservative groups in recent years, which has led to the investigation that is still underway, it is certainly reasonable for ADF and other conservative groups to suspect that it will be conservative churches who will be targeted by the IRS for heightened scrutiny. For its part, the FFRF is gnashing its teeth about the IRS' temporarily halting its investigations on nonprofit groups while the investigations in Congress are ongoing. It is unclear how long this moratorium on nonprofit organizations will last, but it is certain that it will not be permanent.

If the Freedom of Information request is honored by the IRS, at least more will be known about the protocols that the IRS plans to use to determine what churches to scrutinize, and how to punish those churches it deems in violation of its policies. However, the IRS has hardly been known to comply with the law. Emails have been deleted, IRS officials have refused to testify, and the IRS has simply chosen not to cooperate in any meaningful way with the Congressional investigations into its wrongdoing.

At present, it is uncertain what will be discovered about the protocols, but all Christians should be concerned about the IRS striking a deal with an aggressively anti-Christian organization to dictate a set of protocols that could strip away the nonprofit status of churches that preach Gospel messages that do not comport with the world view of IRS agents. Where could this ultimately lead? It is not unreasonable to suggest that, unless the IRS is reigned in by Congress, we may see a time very soon when pastors are punished—even with prison time (as they are in Europe and other places currently)-for preaching the Word of God concerning sodomy, the murder of unborn children, or any other number of interests supported by the Obama or subsequent administrations.

The cornerstone of American liberty is the freedom of speech. The founding fathers knew and understood that without the ability to speak out on important issues of the day, and the right to disagree with the government, a republic built on liberty will morph into one built on tyranny.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13