Americans United for Separation of Church and State clearly states the legal situation as, “The only thing houses of worship may not do is endorse or oppose candidates for public office or use their resources in partisan campaigns.”

This restriction, which is found in federal tax law, is not limited to churches and other religious ministries. In fact, it is applied to every non-profit organization in the country that holds a tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

An official IRS statement on its policy is here.

A Google search revealed the following complaints against churches.

In June the Washington-based advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State says the Internal Revenue Service should revoke the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status of Bill Keller Ministries when he warned the 2.4 million subscribers to his Internet prayer ministry that “if you vote for Mitt Romney (Rep), you are voting for Satan!”

The Minnesota Monitor reported here , that “an event last night at Living Word Christian Center, a large suburban church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, featuring Republican Congressional Candidate Michele Bachmann could cost the church its nonprofit tax status as the event appeared to endorse Bachmann for office.”

The Irregular Times reported here that, “The Walnut Creek Community Church has blatantly violated this condition of its tax exempt status. The church’s Reverend, Tim Rude, has admitted to sending an email in which he campaigned explicitly as the Reverend of the Walnut Creek Community Church, and on behalf of the other leaders of the church, in favor of the presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee (Rep). In the letter, he admitted to working in his capacity as Reverend, with the knowledge of his church with the leaders of other churches to organize pro-Huckabee campaign activism. Furthermore, the email was sent to the leaders of other churches in order to solicit their support “as Christians” for the Huckabee presidential campaign.

WorldNetDaily.com reported that a federal appeals court upheld the Internal Revenue Service’s decision to revoke the tax-exempt status of a church that had paid for newspaper ads against then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton (Dem) in 1992.

From the OMB Watch website . On May 5, (2005) nine members of the East Waynesville Baptist Church in North Carolina were excommunicated by their pastor for voting for former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. The pastor, Rev. Chan Chandler, allegedly told his congregants that voting for Kerry was against the tenets of the church. The pastor has since resigned from his position. There has been no information whether the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is looking into the allegations of wrong-doing, although Americans United for Separation of Church and State has requested an investigation.

DEFCOM.com in their article It’s the Politics Stupid says that the IRS is simply attacking Liberals and Democrats. Funny most of the published actions by the IRS have been against conservatives. I wonder why?

And now for the latest news and the purpose for making you read all this.

A New Hampshire United Church of Christ held a faith forum. The candidate himself wasn’t on the bill. But about 50 people showed up to talk about the war, poverty and trying to seize back the moral mantle some in the GOP claim. The night also featured an Obama video and a campaign altar call _ an invitation to become a “congregation contact” and rally support for the candidate (Obama).

I find it interesting that Obama’s alleged home church is also the liberal United Church of Christ. Yet his church espouses some mighty strange dogma. On their webpage they state:

The Pastor as well as the membership of Trinity United Church of Christ is committed to a 10-point Vision:

1. A congregation committed to ADORATION.
2. A congregation preaching SALVATION.
3. A congregation actively seeking RECONCILIATION.
4. A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.
5. A congregation committed to BIBLICAL EDUCATION.
6. A congregation committed to CULTURAL EDUCATION.
7. A congregation committed to the HISTORICAL EDUCATION OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN DIASPORA.
8. A congregation committed to LIBERATION.
9. A congregation committed to RESTORATION.
10. A congregation working towards ECONOMIC PARITY.

I don’t notice the word American in that statement and after the Pastor’s past history with despots most notably Libya’s ruler, at a time when that country was attacking Americans, you would have to think twice about his ministry. It really appears to be more a matter of “black values” rather than American or Christian.