A Little Rock bishop named Robert Smith is making headlines for telling his congregation that he plans to vote for John McCain for President. Undoubtedly, that revelation will come as a shock to Smith’s congregants — especially the ones that didn’t see him on television at the Republican National Convention last month when Smith voted, as a delegate, to send McCain to the White House. But Smith’s announcement, because it came from the pulpit, could raise violate IRS regulations. Smith hopes it does: He’s sent a recording of his admission to federal tax officials, all but daring them to challenge him.

As a political reporter at the Twin Falls (Id.) Times-News and the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader and a campaign contributor here at the Democrat-Gazette, I’ve seen the lines between church and state blurred plenty of times around election time. And make no mistake, both parties do it.

In Idaho, the Christian Right would print up pseudo-voter guides that would read like this:
A.) Do you hate children and small animals?
Joe Republican: No. I love children and all of God’s creatures and want to protect their second-amendment rights.
B.) Joe Democrat: Mr. Democrat declined to respond. Many Democrats hate children and small animals and all of the Bill of Rights, including.

Those were the more tasteful voter guides. Others distorted or flat-out lied about candidates’ positions. Evangelical churches would be blanketed with this campaign literature every Sunday before Election Day from Mountain Home to Moscow.

In Kentucky, I attended church the Sunday before Election Day with vice president Dan Quayle (in 1998) and with Congressman Scotty Baesler (in 2000). Quayle spoke to the congregation in what amounted to an informercial for the Republican Party. Baesler, on the other hand, stopped by two different black churches in Lexington on the same Sunday morning, pausing just long enough to smile, shake hands, sing a hymn and receive glowing testimonials from two separate pastors.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, I watched at Baptist and Pentecostal mega-congregations as Mike Huckabee gave sermonettes in key primary states on the Sunday before Election Days. Often, the pastor and the deacons would surround Gov. Huckabee, lay hands on him, and pray for God to bless him.

And Huckabee was hardly alone. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama made similar treks to Protestant megachurches [although they never, to the best of my knowledge, received the laying-on-of-hands from an entire board of deacons...]

None of the above examples, to the best of my knowledge, resulted in an IRS investigation.

By ANDREW DeMILLO
Associated Press Writer
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — In a predominantly black church in a city known for its past racial strife, Bishop Robert Smith is taking sides. His targets: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and federal restrictions barring Smith’s endorsement of Republican John McCain.
At the end of a recent sermon on abortion and gay marriage, Smith told about 50 worshippers at his Word of Outreach Christian Center, “I will be voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin.”
Smith, who is black, said he’s heard complaints from some neighbors and friends who question why he isn’t backing Obama, the first black presidential nominee from a major party.
“I just tell them it’s not about race to me,” said Smith, who served as a delegate to this year’s Republican National Convention. “It’s about principle. I wouldn’t care if it’s my mother. If she isn’t for life or for heterosexual relationships, I wouldn’t vote for my momma.”
Smith’s sermon was aimed at fighting an Internal Revenue Service policy that prohibits charities and churches from intervening in political campaigns. Smith said he didn’t tell parishioners anything they didn’t already know from talking to him at dinners or in private.
“In my investigation of the candidates, neither one of them meets the Biblical standard 100 percent,” Smith said during the Oct. 5 homily. “But only one of them has the basic understanding of when life begins. Only that one can be trusted to ensure that life does not end prematurely.”
Smith said he would send a recording of the sermon to the IRS with the hope that it triggers an investigation. He said that what he did is no different than what other pastors do regularly.
“Everybody in America knows that minsters endorse candidates. They’ve been doing it for years,” Smith said in an interview after his sermon. “People act like it’s a big deal. In the black community, they do it all the time and they do it in other communities as well.”
The legal fight, he said, would lead courts to abolish restrictions on church involvement in politics. In his sermon, he even used the threat of losing the church’s tax-exempt status as a fundraising tool before passing the basket.
“Let me tell you something, saints, let it be known unto thee that you can give whether we have a 501(c)(3) tax exemption or not. You can give to the church because the church doesn’t need a 501(c)(3),” Smith said to a chorus of “amens” from worshippers.
Smith isn’t just testing the law with his sermon backing McCain. He’s also testing his predominantly black congregation and neighborhood by backing McCain over Obama — in a city torn by major racial strife when schools were desegregated 51 years ago.
“You never heard him once say you should vote for this person. He just said ‘This is who I’m going to vote for and here are the principles behind it,”’ said Angela Roberson, who has been going to the church for about a year and is also supporting McCain.
But experts say sermons such as Smith’s are a clear violation of IRS rules and federal law because the pastors were speaking in their official capacity as clergy. Congress amended the tax code in 1954 to state that certain nonprofit groups, including secular charities and places of worship, can lose their tax-exempt status for intervening in a campaign involving candidates.
The IRS has stepped up oversight of political activity in churches in recent years after receiving a flurry of complaints from the 2004 campaign. The IRS reported issuing written advisories against 42 churches for improper politically activity in 2004.
Smith was one of 33 pastors who had planned in September to make pointed sermons about political candidates in an effort orchestrated by the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund. Scrapped because of a missed flight, Smith finally delivered the sermon last week.
Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said the sermons were organized in the hopes of challenging federal law and IRS rules on political speech by pastors.
“For the last 54 years, the tax restirctions have been used to silence and intimdate churches on those issues,” Stanley said.
Nancy Mathis, a spokeswoman for the IRS, would not comment on Smith’s sermon specifically but said the agency would monitor any allegations of political activity by churches.
“We are aware of recent press reports, and will monitor the situation and take action as appropriate,” Mathis said.
Barry Lynn, executive director of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said his group has already filed seven complaints against churches that participated in last month’s demonstration organized by the Alliance Defense Fund. Smith’s church may join that list of churches, Lynn said.
“He may have missed his airplane, but he didn’t miss his chance to cost his church its tax exemption,” Lynn said.
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On the Net:
Word of Outreach Christian Center: www.wordofoutreach.faithweb.com

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