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FEAR OF GOD
Thou shalt not criticize President Bush
BY ADAM REILLY
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The Republican Party’s already done a bang-up job co-opting organized religion in this country. Now, though, it looks like the GOP may be adding a little more oomph to its faith-based agenda. This past Sunday, the rector of Pasadena, California’s All Saints Episcopal Church, J. Edward Bacon, warned his congregation that — due to a guest preacher’s sermon criticizing the Iraq war and the Bush tax cuts prior to the 2004 presidential election — the Internal Revenue Service may revoke the church’s tax-exempt status. This threat is "a direct assault on freedom of speech and freedom of religion," Bacon told the Associated Press. He’s right. As Bill McKibben recently pointed out in "The Christian Paradox," a fine Harper’s article, there is precious little affinity between the Christian gospels and contemporary conservatism. Contrary to what Laura Bush thinks, American literature isn’t apolitical; contrary to what the IRS thinks, American churches aren’t either. Or at least, they shouldn’t be. According to IRS spokesman Bruce Friedland, federal law prohibits the discussion of specific cases of possible noncompliance. However, Friedland noted that about 60 tax-exempt organizations have been investigated for inappropriate political involvement — which would violate federal guidelines for nonprofits — and that a third of these are churches. He would not, however, identify whether the majority of the alleged church violations were pro-Kerry or pro-Bush.
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