Taxation & Estate Planning

Watchdog Group Urges IRS to Investigate Christian Project

By Darrin Mish

The watchdog group Citizen?s for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has urged the IRS to investigate if voter guides/legislative scorecards distributed by the Pray in Jesus Name Project has violated federal tax laws. The Project is affiliated with Persuade the World Ministries and has distributed voter guides that rate politicians as either ?faith friendly? or ?Anti Jesus? in all 50 states.

According to CREW executive director Melanie Sloan, federal law prohibits preachers from politicking over the pulpit but that is what Pray in Jesus Name Project is asking of the pastors as they distribute the voter guides. Sloan accuses Pray in Jesus Name Project of promoting their overt political agenda through churches and warns that any church that goes along with this project will risk its tax- exempt status.

Pray in Jesus Name Project?s website displays pictures of Senate Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D ? California) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D ? Nevada). Below them is found the caption, ?Nancy Pelosi's Congress and Harry Reid's Senate cannot run away from their voting record. If we simply tell the pastors without bias how Harry Reid's Senate voted to confirm the Anti-Jesus Judge David Hamilton (remember the Judge who ruled it's illegal to pray in Jesus' name, but legal to pray for Allah?), how will Christian people vote? If we simply report the non-partisan voting record of Nancy Pelosi's Congress, who voted to pay for abortions with our tax dollars in Obamacare ?health bill,? how will Christian people vote??

The website also encourages the pastors not to be afraid of the government but instead it is time for the government to ?fear the Church of Jesus Christ?.

It is the view of CREW that the church as a non-profit organization is not permitted to distribute voter guides that are partisan. The law states that voter guides must be impartial and politically neutral. According to CREW, Pray in Jesus name distributes voter guides describing candidates as ?pro-abortion?, ?anti-free speech? and ?pro-homosexual?.

Sloan said the IRS should investigate whether Pray in Jesus Name is violating its own tax-exempt status while at the same time warn churches that they jeopardize their own statuses under 501 (c) (3). The IRS has no comments on this matter as it is against their policy to do so.

The Pray in Jesus Name organization has not made any comments on this matter either.

Watchdog Group Urges IRS to Investigate Christian Project is a post from: IRS Tax Problem Solver Blog - IRS Help

Full post as published by IRS Problem Solver Blog on October 29, 2010 (boomark / email).