IRS Pressured to Hammer Churches

We have said this in previous blog posts over the past 8 years...and it seems to be coming closer to fruition.

Our churches are organized under tax code 501 which says they don't have to pay taxes on their offerings.  This means that they are free to use their money for missions, to pay their pastors, light bills, etc....  It also means that their donors can write off their giving on their taxes and not pay income taxes on any money they give to the church.

But what if the IRS begins to disapprove of what the church is teaching?  What if they got a copy of your pastor's sermon where he was reading from Romans 1 and warning against homosexual behavior?  What if your church refuses to marry two gay men in your church?

What if they classify it as "hate speech" and rescind their 501 special tax treatment?

It could result in many churches being put under tremendous financial pressure.  If they were hit with a tax penalty of hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes....many could be forced to the doors of bankruptcy overnight.

IRS Again Pressured To Hammer U.S. Churches


The atheist Freedom From Religion Foundation is demanding – again – that the Internal Revenue Service revoke the tax-exempt status of churches whose ministers express an opinion about a moral issue or a candidate's position that is deemed political.

The lawsuit against President Trump and IRS Director John Koskinen says any consequent harm to churches is of no concern.

But several pastors and other organizations that would be affected have filed a motion to have the case dismissed.

That request comes from Charles Moodie, Koua Vang, Patrick Malone and Holy Cross Anglican Church, whose arguments were submitted to the U.S. District Court in Wisconsin by the Becket Fund.

"Plaintiff FFRF asks this court to issue an injunction requiring the IRS to penalize internal church teaching, including the preaching of proposed intervenors Rev. Charlies Moodie, Pastor Koua Vang, and Father Patrick Malone to their church congregations, ... But since 1871, the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly confirmed that the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment prevent the government from interfering with internal church affairs," the new brief explains.

In fact, the demand from FFRF itself would undoubtedly violate the Constitution, the brief contends.

"There is a reason that the IRS has never actually enforced its regulations against internal church speech: because it knows it won't hold up against a First Amendment defense. Even in the context of public governmental religious speech, courts have been clear that ‘government not seek to define permissible categories of religious speech.'"

FFRF tried the same lawsuit two years ago.

In May, President Trump issued an executive order stating that the IRS should not enforce the rules. FFRF then filed its lawsuit to demand that the IRS start enforcing the pulpit speech restrictions despite the executive order.

"Pastors, priests, imams, and rabbis shouldn't have to get the IRS' permission just to preach candidly to their congregations," said Daniel Blomberg, legal counsel at Becket. "IRS sermon censorship is bad for the church and it's bad for the state. This is one place where a little more separation of church and state would go a long way."

The new filing seeking that the case be dismissed notes that the constitutional protection for churches' autonomy "is so powerful that the churches' and the government's interest in preserving church autonomy need not be balanced against competing societal interest such as preventing employment discrimination."

It continued: "Here, there is little doubt that FFRF's requested injunction against the churches and other houses of worship would violate both the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause by requiring the government to interfere with the internal affairs of the churches. The content of a sermon preached from the pulpit by a minister to his or her congregation is both a ‘matter of church government as well as of faith and doctrine.'"

In fact, there is "not a single reported case upholding the imposition of such restrictions against churches. And for good reason: granting FFRF's request here would be ‘forcefully unconstitutional – one of the most sweeping violations of the First Amendment in American history.'"

While the IRS has "extremely explicit regulations" on the issue, it has never yet enforced them.

"Refusing to enforce its own regulations also means that the IRS has not had to defend them," the filing said.

Here;  http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1523

If The Lord tarries, it's very possible that we will see the day come where churches lose their exemption.  While this might sound like it could be catastrophic...it may, in fact, end up being a time when the wheat is separated from the chaff.

If your pastor refused to preach the truth because he is scared of financial repercussions....maybe that church should be folded up?

God will always bless those who are willing to speak His truth.  Maybe the blessing won't come in this life, but they will certainly come in the next.

2 Timothy 4
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.