Why are the Republicans trying to suppress Christianity?

This is just classic: Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning: All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena risks losing its tax-exempt status because of a former rector's remarks in 2004 by Patricia Ward Biederman and Jason Felch Los Angeles Times 11/07/05.

One of the favorite refrains of the Christian Right is that anyone who criticizes their reactionary political ideas is "against Christians participating in politics". They claim that "religion has been removed from the public square".

That's not at all the case, of course. It's generally accepted that one's religious convictions may be an important or even decisive influence on how a person stands on a particular issue. And in the real world, some element of "identity politics" comes into play, e.g., Catholics who may have voted for John Kennedy or John Kerry based on their Church affiliation.

For the Christian Right, though, politics trumps religious affiliation in political contests. Christian Right groups supported the Republican presidential candidates running against Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Al Gore, all Southern Baptists.

The basic legal rules are clear for churches, just as for other non-profits. They can take official stands on individual issues. They can encourage political participation in general, and they can promote voter registration. But they are not allowed to participate in partisan politics as such. So the First Missionary Hardshell Baptist Church can declare that anyone who opposes the death penalty for pickpockets is going to Hail. And it's okay even if that's Joe Bob Killum's one and only issue in the campaign. But the FMH Baptist Church can't formally endorse Joe Bob's candidacy or use church funds to campaign for him.


The Christian Right has often pushed the envelope on the partisan politics thing, though. At least in some presidential elections, the Christian Right encouraged ministers to endorse the Republican candidate from the pulpit. And the Republicans' goal with their "faith-based" initiative is to pump money to conservative Protestant churches who would then act as a partisan network for their Party.

Technically, the IRS is nonpartisan. But this sure smells like another move by the increasingly authoritarian Republican Party to suppress the expression of majority sentiments. At this point, barely a third of the public says the Iraq War was worth it. And even if the priest were expressing a minority opinion, for the IRS to try to suppress it in this way is ridiculous.

I remember years ago reading about some feminist group suing to remove the Catholic Church's tax exemption because of their anti-abortion stance. I didn't follow the case, but presumably it expired in the lower courts. I remember thinking at the time that this was a foolish and probably counterproductive move, and was glad I didn't hear any more about it.

The same thing applies to this case. Does the Christian Republican White Peoples Party really want to fight this battle? Because if antiwar churches have to be taxed, then prowar churches should certainly be taxed, as well.

I'm really kind of amazed at this. The non-profit status of churches in America is actually a large tax subsidy to religious institutions. The Christian Right churches are far more vulnerable to losing their tax-exempt status over political issues than the Episcopalians.

Or maybe the Reps would prefer to tax only those churches who don't support the true Christian Republican Party line.

Tags: authoritarianism, christian right

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