Liberal Group Sends Letter to IRS Challenging Falwell's Tax-Exempt Status

Friday, July 16, 2004

Today's New York Times reports that Americans United for Separation of Church and State have filed a letter challennging the tax-exempt status of Jerry Falwell Ministries. The group claims that Falwell has violated the rules prohibiting political activity by churches by his active endoresement of President Bush's re-election:

"For conservative people of faith, voting for principle this year means voting for the re-election of George W. Bush," Mr. Falwell wrote in the July 1 issue of his e-mail newsletter "Falwell Confidential'' and on his Web site, falwell.com. "The alternative, in my mind, is simply unthinkable. To the pro-life, pro-family, pro-traditional marriage, pro-America voters in this nation, we must determine that President Bush is the man with our interests at heart. It is that simple." He added: "I believe it is the responsibility of every political conservative, every evangelical Christian, every pro-life Catholic, every traditional Jew, every Reagan Democrat, and everyone in between to get serious about re-electing President Bush."

Falwell claims that the email and web site are the product of Liberty Alliance, a separate lobbying organization he controls, and not Jerry Falwell Ministries. He also defends his First Amendright right to speak out in favor of President Bush:

"We report news, write editorials, etc., all of which is protected by the First Amendment. In addition, Mr. Falwell defended the right of a pastor to endorse political candidates in his personal capacity, even from the pulpit. Mr. Falwell said he often did this at his church, the Thomas Road Baptist Church.

Milton Cerny notes that Falwell is testing the boundaries of permitted political activity: "Even if he claims he is speaking on his own behalf, he is using that pulpit and he is using that church. So he is speaking as the church." As for the Web site, Cerny said that tax laws blocked even tax-exempt lobbying organizations from explicitly endorsing specific candidates, as Mr. Falwell did. "If they let him post it, it is still their activity," he said.

A screen shot of today's front page of the Jerry Falwell Ministries website

For prior TaxProf Blog coverage of the intersection of tax, religion, and politics, see:

• A post on the IRS's 3-page letter sent to the presidential campaigns warning that it "will take whatever actions are necessary to stem abusive behavior" by churches that directly or indirectly participate in the campaigns on behalf of any candidate.
• A post on a Washington Post report that the Bush campaign is aggressively testing the limits of these rules by courting church involvement in the effort to re-elect President Bush: "tax experts said the campaign is walking a fine line between permissible activity by individual congregants and impermissible activity by congregations."