by James Glaser
May 10, 2005

We have a law in this country that allows churches to not pay taxes, but there are some rules those churches have to follow to keep a tax-exempt status. Andre Rodriguez of the Ashville Citizen-Times reports, "The Internal Revenue Service exempts certain organizations from taxation including those organized and operated for religious purposes, provided that they do not engage in certain activities including involvement in "any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office."

In the last two elections churches on both sides have walked up to or maybe even crossed the line on this rule. Now we find some churches on the winning side of the last election have been emboldened so much that they are willing to flaunt IRS rules and do as they please.

The Times Citizen reports on the actions of one such church, the East Waynesville Baptist Church of North Carolina, has voted to kick out any member who voted for John Kerry over George Bush in the last election. Selma Morris a 30 year member of the church tells us that Chan Chandler, the Pastor, had been exhorting his congregation since before the election to support his political views or leave.

"He preached a sermon on abortion and homosexuality, then said if anyone there was planning on voting for John Kerry, they should leave." "That's the first time I've ever heard something like that. Ministers are supposed to bring people in," said Ms. Morris.

Dr. George Bullard, associated executive director-treasure for Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, said if a church's bylaws allow the pastor to establish who and who cannot be a member of the church, the pastor has every right to disallow membership.

This church removed nine members and 40 more resigned in protest

Pastor Robert Prince III of the First Baptist Church of Waynesville said he was appalled to hear about the claims, but noticed a lot of Southern Baptist ministers endorsing President Bush in November's election.

In America we have established a separation between Church and State, because so many of our founding fathers came here to get away from oppressive governments that would not allow them to worship God the way they felt was best. Now it is starting to seem as though the "religious right" is willing to give that separation up and that will lead to the same problems our founders were trying to get away from.

It will be hard for the Bush administration to take away tax-exempt status from the very people who put them in power, but if George Bush stands by his oath of office, he will do just that. Otherwise we are on our way to Washington establishing a State sponsored religion that we all must follow.

Already Bush has started passing tax money to Church sponsored faith based organizations, that he says will do "good works' for the community. This came about with a strong push from the Right, where any separation of Church and State is looked at as an inconvenience, as long as their candidate is in power. If however the Democrats get back in, you will see the Right demanding that all rules apply.