Should churches lose their tax exemption status for financially supporting a political campaign?

by admin on Feb.08, 2010, under Civic Participation


In the 2008 election the mormon (and other) churches financially supported the “Yes on 8″ campaign. Considering the laws separating church and state, shouldn’t these churches lose their tax exempt status?
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18 Comments for this entry

  • Mercer Devil
    February 13th, 2010 on 3:56 pm

    Yes, if they want to have an effect on public elections, they should start by paying public taxes.

  • joeschlobotnic
    February 14th, 2010 on 11:59 am

    if they are preaching obama from the pulpit

  • a bush family member
    February 14th, 2010 on 12:21 pm

    Well, unions are tax exempt and they are not losing their status. Unions campaigned heavily for Obama and they did it with a tax break.

  • trag_black
    February 17th, 2010 on 7:50 pm

    Yes. It’s a terrible double standard. The churches have had America by the balls for years.

  • lawrenceba549
    February 22nd, 2010 on 5:09 am

    No, because the law specifies that they can not support a candidate for office. Any issues related political action that does not endorse a specific candidate for a specific office is, and should remain, legal.

  • Ally 2
    February 25th, 2010 on 3:58 pm

    It’s not just the mormons, my Parent’s Catholic Church had to endure sermons nearly every week in September and October, wherein they promoted Obama, and this was the Catholic Church – you know, the no abortion people!! An Assembly of God Church in my city put up a sign reminding people to vote for John McCain.

    However, supporting Prop 8 is a little different than promoting a candidate. They were supporting a cause that most traditional churches believe, and that is marriage is between a man and woman. This is a fundamental Christian belief, and don’t forget, this country was built around Christianity. I know many don’t like it, but it’s true.

    ALSO, WHAT ABOUT ACORN, FUNDED BY US, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, BUT THEY ONLY PROMOTE DEMOCRATS!!! Now that’s a much bigger travesty of justice!!!!!!!!!!!

  • freakygirl26
    February 27th, 2010 on 3:02 am

    Yes. You should no longer be recognized as a non-secular entity if you become involved in funding political campaigns.

  • Brian L
    February 28th, 2010 on 11:48 am

    Absolutely. With the line being drawn between support, and financial support.

    Please keep your church out of my politics, thanks.

  • G
    March 1st, 2010 on 5:17 am

    Only if it means Christians can stop paying taxes to the government.

    Remember that Christians don’t need governments because they live by their own code of laws.

    It is liberals who need someone to tell them what to do and think.

    America needs Christians a lot more than Christians need America.

  • Warren D
    March 1st, 2010 on 7:11 am

    “Yes on 8″ presumably is Proposition 8.

    I would say on an issue of this type, which by definition deals with a moral issue, can be supported by churches. I don’t live in California, but if my church were to support a similar issue financially I would expect them to do that with a separate collection from the normal church offering, and I would expect to be able to choose whether or not to donate to it.

    Under these circumstances I would feel the churches were acting within their moral authority and would not support taking their tax exempt status away from them. Ideally this sort of fund would be administered by a separate committee with its own bank account.

    If my church were to support an issue of this sort, or to support a particular candidate, with contribution out of the financial resources collected as offerings I would consider that improper and would support dropping the tax exempt status.

    That said, my church would not do that. It might support Proposition 8, if this were applicable in our state, but would not do so financially as a congregation. In all such matters individual members of the congregation should be free to disagree.

    Technically, Proposition 8 was not a political issue. (In practice, however, it might as well be one.) Its support and opposition was drawn from a large cross-section of voters and supporters. There were no doubt Republicans and Democrats who supported it as well as those who opposed it. Libertarians, by definition, should have opposed it.

  • PIX-ED
    March 3rd, 2010 on 1:14 am

    YES!!!
    If the church made the contributions it should lose its tax exempt status.
    If the clergy actively preached for the parishioners to donate then the church should lose its tax exempt status.

  • MeHoo
    March 6th, 2010 on 9:42 am

    Yes. They have a different kind of tax-exempt status than unions do. Don’t even try to compare the two, you’re completely out of your league.

  • ^
    March 7th, 2010 on 12:07 pm

    No. And there is no Constitutional Amendment, or clause, that states that there is shall be a separation of church and state. The First Amendment protects religion from the government, not the other way around.

  • Dinah
    March 8th, 2010 on 3:17 pm

    Yes. Seems to me the congregation wouldn’t be there to begin with if they didn’t already agree about *** rights, that no word for the pulpit is necessary. In the ‘96 Atlanta Olympics, as example, the International Olympics Committee pulled a venue from a county whose council had demanded the removal of a play with a *** side plot, and moved the venue to another county. I lived there at the time. CNN broadcast it worldwide.

  • m1a1mikegolf
    March 8th, 2010 on 8:13 pm

    Only if you also remove the tax exempt status of any other non-profit agency if they support any political campaign.

    I detect a double standard here. If you are going to remove the tax exempt status of an organization that supported the measure – then you also need to remove the tax-exempt status of the organizations that opposed it.

  • bailie28
    March 10th, 2010 on 5:59 am

    yes they should..end of story

  • Mary N
    March 10th, 2010 on 6:02 pm

    I am not aware of any laws separating church & state.

    The issue to which you refer concentrates on the alleged violation of the IRS tax codes.

    The organizations which advocated passage of Prop 8 while receiving the tax-exempt status of a 501(c)(3) group is the issue.

    501(c)(3) is simply a reference to the federal tax code & it specifically prohibits political advocacy. For example, the Catholic Conference of Bishops used $200,000.00 to influence voters to pass the Prop 8 measure. This information is easily obtained from public election campaign records.

    Other organizations which also supported the passage of Prop 8, a California citizen initiative, have a status of 501(c)(4) and that designation allows political advocacy.

    In conclusion, “YES!”

    Further, I encourage others who concur with my opinion to independently file a complaint with the US Internal Revenue Service for investigation of each offending organization.

  • Modesta Falgoust
    April 6th, 2010 on 7:47 am

    You seem very knowledgable about this issue and it shows. Trust all your future posts turn out as well. Cheers!

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