Politics in the church pews

Re “Conservatives Put Faith in Church Voter Drives,” Aug. 15

Evangelical leaders are actively recruiting new GOP voters for the November elections. This flies in the face of the Internal Revenue Service’s crackdown on nonprofit organizations that engage in politics. Interestingly, the main thrust of its investigation is All Saints Church in Pasadena. It has been under fire for an anti-Iraq war sermon delivered before the 2004 presidential election. Unmentioned, however, is the East Waynesville Baptist Church in North Carolina, which kicked out its Democratic members in 2005, telling them that if they voted for Sen. John Kerry they must “repent.” From this, I would gather, those evangelical recruiters have nothing to worry about -- God is a Republican.

LARRY TAMBLYN

Palmdale

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Organizers of these voter drives maintain that they pay careful attention to applicable tax law forbidding tax-exempt charitable organizations, including churches, from engaging in partisan electioneering. The article also reports that one group plans to distribute to churches in Ohio a voter guide that lists candidates’ views on particular hot-button issues, including same-sex marriage, abortion and stem cell research. Such a guide raises serious compliance questions.

Under the tax law, a determination of whether an activity constitutes prohibited partisan electioneering depends on the facts and circumstances of each case. A 1978 IRS ruling explained that a voter guide that presented candidates’ positions “on a wide variety of issues” selected “solely on the basis of their importance and interest to the electorate as a whole” constituted permitted voter education and not prohibited electioneering. If, however, churches distribute voter guides limited to a few hot-button issues of particular concern to conservative voters, they may well violate the prohibition on partisan electioneering and risk their eligibility for tax exemption.

ELLEN P. APRILL

Professor of Tax Law

Loyola Law School

Los Angeles