Church Defies IRS, Stages Protest

Hundreds of people rallied in Indianapolis on Saturday in support of a church that is refusing to pay a $6-million tax bill.

Leaders of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple, who number their congregation at 1,000, say they will not pay the money the Internal Revenue Service claims they owe from 1987 through 1993, nor will they surrender their church if it is seized to pay the tax debt.

Protesters chanted “No more Waco!” throughout the protest, referring to the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, and making some worry that violence might break out.

Instead, the protest was more like a church picnic in springtime as the crowd gathered at a downtown Indianapolis federal courthouse, heard speeches, chanted and sang “God Save America” to the tune of “God Bless America” before walking to another downtown federal building.

Just in case, about 20 law enforcement officers were on hand in addition to plainclothes federal agents. But there were no arrests or violence.

Church leaders renounced the organization’s tax-exempt status in 1986, claiming that government regulation conflicts with their religious faith. That prompted a legal battle after the church refused to pay federal withholding taxes on the income of its 60 employees.

“We did these things because we wanted to make Jesus Christ our head, our master and our Lord,” said the Rev. Greg Dixon Jr., the church’s pastor who succeeded his father in the post.

“We passed the point of no return a long time ago and there’s no turning back,” Dixon told church members and supporters, some of whom came from Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan.