c. 2000 Religion News Service
IRS Concedes Christian Coalition Was Tax-Exempt in 1990
(RNS) A Virginia district judge has ordered the Internal Revenue Service to refund taxes paid by the Christian Coalition in 1990 because the IRS has conceded that the organization was tax-exempt in that year.
The decision on Tuesday (July 25) by U.S. District Judge Henry Morgan Jr. of Norfolk, Va., came within two weeks of the coalition receiving a refund for its $169.26 payment to the IRS.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a law firm that represented the coalition, called the decision a “major victory.”
The law firm was founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, who also founded the coalition.
“Everything we asked for in the complaint, we obtained,” Sekulow said, referring to the suit filed against the IRS in February.
The suit followed a 1999 IRS rejection of the coalition’s application for tax-exempt status. The coalition charged that the IRS gave “disparate treatment” to the coalition’s application for tax-exempt status compared to “liberal” groups engaged in similar activities.
“I don’t know whether to cash the check or keep it and frame it,” Sekulow told Religion News Service. “We’re thrilled.”
He said he has advised the coalition to file claims with the IRS for refunds for the following years.
“If you qualified in ’90 for these same activities, you can’t not qualify in 1998,” Sekulow said.
But Charles Miller, spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department, which represented the IRS in the case, holds a different view.
“Obviously, in that the IRS had gone ahead and refunded the money … it was conceded by the government that in 1990, the tax-exempt status was correct,” said Miller. “However, the case dealt strictly with 1990 and does not apply to any other tax year.”
The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the order “a hollow victory” that is being misinterpreted by the coalition.
“This doesn’t change the fact that the IRS denied the Christian Coalition’s tax exemption due to its partisan political activities,” Lynn said in a statement. “I don’t consider a $169 refund much of a victory. That won’t pay for a tank of fuel for Pat Robertson’s jet.”
Update: Baptist Agency Airs Edited Interview With Falwell
(RNS) A controversial interview with the Rev. Jerry Falwell aired on a Southern Baptist agency’s radio program Tuesday (July 25) without the sentence that caused the most controversy.
The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Richard Land, host of “For Faith & Family,” a program of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, had voiced differing opinions about whether portions of the interview should be aired.
Some of Falwell’s comments, stated as personal opinion, did air: “Ronald Reagan would not have been president unless Bible-believing Christians in 1979 and 1980 by the millions said we had had enough and threw Jimmy Carter out and put Ronald Reagan in, to put it bluntly.”
But his next sentence was edited from the broadcast: “If we don’t do the same thing Nov. 7 with Mr. Gore … and get somebody in there to rebuild the moral values and fabric of this nation, we’re going to be in the same mess or worse than we were in 1980.”
Lynn applauded the editing and sent Land a letter saying he was glad the portion of the interview that might have “placed the Southern Baptist Convention’s tax exemption in jeopardy” did not air.
“We gave the SBC what we thought was our best legal advice,” Lynn said in a statement. “We’re glad they took it. Churches nationwide should take note and reject the partisanship of those like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson when they come calling this election season.”
Land said the decisions regarding the airing of the interview had nothing to do with Lynn’s recommendations. He said the entire tape was reviewed by the American Center for Law and Justice, a law firm founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson.
“Mr. Lynn cannot claim credit for enhancing our editing process _ from early on in the production of `For Faith & Family,’ we have had at our disposal legal counsel to review tapes to insure their appropriateness for airing,” he said in Baptist Press, the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“Although ACLJ attorneys found Dr. Falwell’s comments to be `permissible,’ as they were identified as `strictly personal and not representative’ of the ERLC or the SBC, in the editing process for this interview as in every other occasion we steer far clear of the line.”
Campus Crusade President Bill Bright Announces Successor
(RNS) Bill Bright, longtime president of Campus Crusade for Christ, announced Wednesday (July 26) who will succeed him as leader of the prominent evangelical association.
Stephen Douglass, the executive vice president and director of U.S. ministries for Campus Crusade, will follow Bright when he retires on or before August 1, 2001 as president. Bright, 78, will continue to serve as chairman of the board of directors.
“He’s one of the most remarkable men I’ve ever met,” Bright said of Douglass, who has worked with the Orlando, Fla.-based ministry for 30 years. “I’m happy to pass the torch to a man whom I greatly admire and love and respect, who will do a better job than I.”
The two men spoke to reporters in a conference call shortly after Bright announced the transition to his worldwide staff.
Douglass, 55, said he does not plan to make wholesale changes in the ministry, but sees its potential for making greater use of innovation to accomplish its evangelistic goals. He hopes to foster greater development of Internet sites for “seekers” as well as for Christians who want to enhance their faith.
Douglass, who has served on the board of Mission America, an umbrella organization of evangelical groups, said he also would continue to pursue partnerships with other ministries.
“I believe this is a time of unity in the Christian body and that very unity, as the Scriptures tell us, is a witness that there must be a God,” he said.
Bright said he will continue to promote fasting and prayer for spiritual revival, keep working on 10 books he is writing, and expand training opportunities for Campus Crusade staff.
He has no plans to slow down.
“When your heart is full of the love of God and you know that he’s the only one who can help poor little old human beings that are so broken with hate and fear and frustration, you can’t remain silent if you know that the God who created the universe loves us,” Bright said. “I want to help take this good news to everyone who will listen.”
Bright and his wife, Vonette, co-founded Campus Crusade in 1951. It began as a ministry to college students, but now also includes more than 60 ministries involving inner cities, athletes, the military, families, executives and prisons.
Opposition to Full Communion Festers in Lutheran Synods
(RNS) Opposition to the full communion agreement between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church continues to fester within the Lutherans’ 65 regional synods.
The on-again, off-again agreement between the two churches was overwhelmingly approved by Episcopalians meeting earlier this month in Denver. Lutherans ratified the pact last year, and it will become official on Jan. 1, 2001.
The historic agreement allows both churches _ with a combined membership of more than 7 million _ to share clergy and joint mission projects, particularly in rural and hard-hit urban areas. It is the first full communion agreement adopted by the Episcopalians.
Opposition to the plan, however, is not going away. Nearly a third of the ELCA’s 65 synods have passed resolutions seeking to alter the agreement to appease Lutheran concerns. At synod meetings this summer, 10 synods voiced their support of the agreement, while 10 others asked for changes.
The main sticking point for many Lutherans, particularly in the upper Midwest, is the adoption of the historic line of bishops that governs the Episcopal Church. Under the agreement, only Lutheran bishops _ and not just pastors _ would be able to ordain new Lutheran pastors.
One resolution, passed by the Alaska synod, asked that the agreement be implemented “in such a way that those persons who feel bound by consciences to remain outside the historic episcopate are able to remain within the ELCA without compromising their consciences.”
ELCA leaders have said that such decisions are made on a church-wide level and have the support of the church’s biennial Churchwide Assembly. Individual synods do not have the right to pull out of the agreement, Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson has said.
Jewish Groups Disappointed by Peace Talks’ Collapse
(RNS) A day after the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks between leaders of Israel and the Palestinians, several Jewish organizations in the United States praised the efforts of the parties involved and said they hope negotiations will resume.
“We are deeply disappointed by the news that the Camp David summit has ended without a significant agreement,” said the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism in a press release. “The lack of a final agreement should not obscure the need for progress, nor the danger of allowing violence to again erupt in the region.”
The group lauded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for making an effort to reach common ground.
“While we are disappointed that an overall agreement was not reached, we are encouraged by the intense negotiations over the past two weeks and by the breakthroughs that were achieved,” they said. “We know that some progress was, in fact, made, and that the negotiators were able to engage in face-to-face talks on subjects _ such as the status of Jerusalem _ that they had not been able to address previously. We urge all parties not to allow this modest but important progress to dissipate.”
The group also declared President Clinton “a true rodeph shalom, a pursuer of peace” and extended thanks as well to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other U.S. officials.
Both Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak drew praise for their roles in the peace talks from the United Jewish Communities, a merger of the United Jewish Appeal, Council of Jewish Federations and the United Israel Appeal.
“We extend to President Clinton the thanks and appreciation of the entire North American Jewish community for his leadership,” said a statement released by Charles R. Bronfman, the group’s chairman of the board. “At the same time, Prime Minister Barak deserves our heartfelt gratitude for his extraordinary courage during those long and difficult days.”
Israel was also praised by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations for “once again” showing “their readiness to take unprecedented steps to achieve a just and lasting peace.”
“It is regrettable that Prime Minister Barak did not find a true partner for peace in Chairman (Yasser) Arafat,” read a statement issued by the group’s chairman, Ronald S. Lauder, and executive vice chairman Malcolm Hoenlein. “The prime minister went further than any of his predecessors in offering far-reaching concessions to make an agreement possible. … The government of Israel went far beyond expectations to reach an accord with the Palestinians, only to be met with escalating and unrealistic demands.”
The group added, “Ultimately, the people in the region pay the price for the absence of peace.”
Cardinal Law Urges U.S. Action on Indonesian Sectarian Strife
(RNS) In the wake of an announcement that some 1,000 Indonesian Muslim paramilitary troops plan to join religious fighting between Christians and Muslims in the nation’s Maluku provinces, Boston’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Bernard Law has urged the U.S. government to take a more active role in pushing the Indonesian government to ensure peace.
“Whatever the right formula, it is essential that the Indonesian government take decisive action both to control its own military and to disarm murderous militia armies,” Law, chairman of the U.S. Catholic Conference’s international policy committee, said in a letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
“I know you share these concerns. I can only urge you to make the strongest case possible that order be restored immediately and that international aid agencies be allowed to carry out their essential humanitarian work, needed now more than ever,” Law said.
The Maluku islands, known as the Spice Islands during Dutch colonial rule, have been scarred by 18 months of fighting between Muslims and Christians that has killed some 3,000 people on both sides. The death toll continues to rise despite the declaration of civil emergency in the region last month.
Leaders of a Muslim paramilitary group in nearby Java announced Monday (July 24) they would send about 1,300 more troops to the islands to reinforce thousands of soldiers who infiltrated the region in May. But Wednesday, Indonesian officials said they would stop the troops from entering the provinces, and would force troops already in the islands to leave.
“For the ones who are already here in Ambon (the provincial capital),persuasive measures will be taken to make them leave the islands voluntarily,” Maluku islands governor Saleh Latuconsina _ a Muslim _ told Reuters news agency. “But if they still resist, repressive actions will be carried out.”
Quote of the Day: William Donohue, president of the Catholic League
(RNS) “If (Washington, D.C. City Councilman Jim) Graham is really concerned about injury to gays, he ought to admonish them to practice sexual restraint. It saves more lives than any condom ever will.”
_ William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, responding to a letter from Graham, who is gay. Graham wrote to Donohue asking that he “share my concern about the disparaging remarks made by the pope” surrounding the recent World Gay Pride events in Rome.
DEA END RNS
