Question by doublewidemama: Is it legal for a church to distribute a paid political ad for/against a state amendment?
Is it legal for a church to distribute in their weekly bulletin at Sunday service a bulletin that has “paid political ad…” for/against a state amendment that is up for a vote?
Is it legal for the same church to post Christian Coalition of America on their website along with ValuesVoter link?
What are the church’s obligations as a tax-exempt organization as far as distribution of paid political ads and assocations with politcal groups?
Best answer:
Answer by FairTaxAdvocate
its perfectly legal, but yes they could lose their tax-exempt organization status. If ACORN does not lose their status then the church should be left alone.
I’ll keep my guns and religion
You can keep the “change”
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No it isn’t, but the longer we go on allowing them to do it .. the further they will go… and sooner or later we will end up back in the days where the churches control our daily lives like they did before our ancestors came to america.
How do you like the idea of the church telling you that you can’t marry a Catholic if you are a Protestant … you your children MUST go to the school they tell you to send them. How about on top of taxes you are REQUIRED to tithe. How do you feel about the Church being an untouchable power base?
If the church is claiming tax exempt status while doing these things, it may be breaking both federal law and one of the Commandments by stealing from American tax payers.
Link below is to the IRS website documentation on this issue. It is very detailed, even mentioning that when a tax exempt organization establishes a web link to another website there are consequences if that linked site endorses a particular candidate, or favors one over another (Christian Coalition does).
If you have any concerns, contact the IRS.
It is actually perfectly legal for churches to endorse political POSITIONS, and this does not interfere with their tax exempt status.
It is, however, illegal for churches to endorse or promote CANDIDATES.