Alliance Defense Fund Encourages Pastors To Endorse Political Candidates Despite Federal Ban

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Also Included In: Abortion
Article Date: 10 Sep 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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The Alliance Defense Fund, which opposes human embryonic stem cell research and abortion rights, is recruiting several dozen pastors to endorse political candidates on Sept. 28 despite a federal ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship, the Washington Post reports. According to the Post, the effort is intended to elicit an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service that ADF would then challenge in federal court, with the ultimate goal of persuading the Supreme Court to overthrow the 54-year-old ban.

ADF attorney Erik Stanley said, "For so long, there has been this cloud of intimidation over the church," adding, "It is the job of the pastors of America to debate the proper role of church in society. It's not for the government to mandate the role of church in society." Stanley also said, "We're not encouraging any congregation to violate the law. What we're encouraging them to do is exercise their constitutional right in the face of an unconstitutional law."

The Post reports that a group of Christian and Jewish clergy, led by United Church of Christ pastors Eric Williams and Robert Molsberry, will petition the IRS to stop the protest before it starts, calling the political endorsement effort an attack on the law and the separation of church and state. The group, which is backed by three IRS officials, wants the agency to determine whether ADF, a not-for-profit organization, is risking its own tax-exempt status by organizing an "inappropriate, unethical and illegal" series of political endorsements. The group wrote, "As religious leaders, we have grave concerns about the ethical implications of soliciting and organizing churches to violate core principles of our society."

Stanley said three dozen church leaders from more than 20 states have agreed to deliver a political sermon that will endorse a political candidate despite the risk of losing their churches' tax-exempt status. He added, "The sermon will be an evaluation of conditions for office in light of scripture and doctrine. They will make a specific recommendation from the pulpit about how the congregation would vote." Stanley added, "They could oppose a candidate. They could oppose both candidates. They could endorse a candidate. They could focus on a federal, state or local election."

Marcus Owens, a former IRS lawyer, opposes ADF's strategy and its legal reasoning, the Post reports. Owens, who is working with the pastors organizing the opposition to ADF's effort, said the Supreme Court likely would not overturn appellate court rulings on the issue or a related precedent of its own. Owens also criticized ADF and its lawyers for "actively advising churches and pastors that they should violate the tax law and offering to explain how to do that. The tax system would be shut down if you allowed attorneys to counsel people on how to violate the tax law." In addition, Owens said he will ask IRS to investigate ADF lawyers for "this flagrant disregard of the ethical rules."

According to the Post, Williams and Molsberry have called for hundreds of clergy members on Sept. 21 to preach about the value of the separation between church and state. Joe Conn, a spokesperson for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called ADF's effort a "stunt" that is an attempt by the religious right to establish a church network that will "put their candidates into office" (Slevin, Washington Post, 9/8).

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