Will the IRS like your next sermon?

Here's a frightening thought. The IRS is cracking down on political speech in sermons. So, you say, that might be so bad. Churches shouldn't tell people how to vote. The problem lies in the gray area between electioneering and prophetic preaching. A sermon preached at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, CA, said that the Gulf War is bad. The timing was an issue. The sermon was preached just before the 2004 elections.

What happened next? The IRS began to threaten and cajole. Lots of people, right and left, are not happy about this. All Saints isn't taking this easily. They've just announced they'll appeal.

From the LA Times article on Friday:

A liberal Pasadena church on Thursday declared that it will refuse to comply with an IRS investigation into its tax-exemption status launched after a guest speaker was critical of President Bush in a sermon.

At a news conference attended by 50 cheering supporters gathered before the marble altar at All Saints Episcopal Church, the Rev. Ed Bacon said his 3,500-member congregation did not violate tax regulations barring tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing candidates when a former rector, George F. Regas, criticized the Bush administration two days before the 2004 presidential election.

I encourage you to follow this story. We need our government to stay out of the business of censoring prophetic or unpopular speech. Right or left, preachers should be able to speak out on the issues of the day. Maybe the IRS should spend more time preventing wholesale corporate fraud and less time monitoring sermons.

Here's the ENS article.

UPDATE: Maybe you'll want to buy this T-shirt.