c. 2004 Religion News Service

IRS Denies It Told Churches Not to Pray for Bush’s Re-election

WASHINGTON (RNS) A Virginia pastor who prayed that God would re-elect President Bush says the Internal Revenue Service threatened him with charges of improper “electioneering,” but the IRS maintains it has made no decision in the case.

The controversy erupted Friday (Oct. 29) on the eve of the presidential elections as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other conservatives urged churches to hold prayer vigils for “pro-life and pro-traditional family leaders.”

Attorneys for the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, a Presbyterian pastor based in Fredericksburg, Va., asked the IRS in September if he could pray for God to “grant President Bush four more years” without risking a church’s tax-exempt status. Mahoney planned to offer the prayer during a 16-city tour of churches in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

On Oct. 18, the IRS responded that politicking “on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office” is illegal for churches, including when “someone endorsing a candidate is invited to speak.”

Mahoney’s lawyers asked for more clarification _ specifically, if Mahoney’s endorsement via prayer constituted political speech. Jim Henderson, Mahoney’s attorney at the American Center for Law and Justice, said the IRS’ Judith Kindell told him by phone that prayer was considered political speech if it was used to endorse a candidate.

On Friday, citing it could not comment on any “taxpayer information,” the IRS would not confirm or deny what Kindell told Henderson in that phone call.

“This is the first time in American history that the IRS and the federal government is mandating how churches should pray, and it’s clearly a crushing of the First Amendment and religious liberty,” Mahoney said Friday.

As a result, Mahoney said he would not pray for Bush’s re-election at his last stop in Zanesville, Ohio. In 1992, Mahoney was involved in the landmark case of a New York church that lost its tax-exempt status after it urged voters not to elect Bill Clinton. “I didn’t want to see another church go through that,” he said.

The IRS, meanwhile, said it has made no formal ruling in the case, and refused to speculate on whether Mahoney’s prayer violated the ban against nonprofit politicking.

“The IRS has never issued a ruling telling people how to pray,” said IRS spokeswoman Nancy Mathis. “However, there are provisions in federal law that prohibit political activities by charitable groups, such as churches, if they want to maintain their tax-exempt status.”

Mathis said charges would need to be filed in order for the IRS to investigate, and findings would be based on “specific facts and circumstances.”

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., the chief sponsor of a bill to allow churches to endorse candidates, called the case “one more step by Big Brother to stifle the free speech of our religious leaders.”

A church-state watchdog group, meanwhile, called it much ado about nothing. “The bottom line is there is no IRS letter telling churches they cannot pray for Bush,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “To be blunt, the whole story is a bald-faced lie.”

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Pope Urges Iran to Suspend Uranium Enrichment

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope John Paul II urged Iran on Friday (Oct. 29) to bow to the United Nations nuclear agency and suspend its uranium enrichment program.

The pope made the appeal at a Vatican ceremony in which he received the credentials of Iran’s new ambassador to the Holy See, Mohammad Javad Faridzadeh, who previously served as a presidential representative on international cultural and political questions.

John Paul did not refer directly to Iran’s uranium enrichment operations, which Washington and Europe fear are a step toward development of nuclear weapons, but his meaning was clear.

“Certainly, the building of peace presupposes reciprocal trust in order to welcome one another not as a threat but as an interlocutor, likewise accepting the ties and the mechanisms of control that involve such common commitments as treaties and multilateral agreements,” the pope said. He specifically cited the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency has given Iran until the end of November to suspend its enrichment program, and France and Germany have offered trade concessions and nuclear technology as incentives for Iran to comply.

Tehran, which contends the enrichment program is purely for peaceful purposes, called the offer “unbalanced” but agreed to continue discussions.

The pope said that respect for the United Nations and other international organizations is essential to guarantee peace and to “take courageous action” against the threat of terrorism.

“For its part, the Holy See will not grudge efforts to convince government leaders to renounce violence and force on every occasion and to make negotiations always prevail as the means to overcome dissension and conflicts that can arise between nations, groups and individuals,” he said.

John Paul also urged Iran’s fundamentalist state to respect the religious rights of Christians.

Calling religious freedom a fundamental human right, John Paul said the Vatican looks to Iranian authorities to support freedom of worship for Catholics and all other Christians in Iran where members of the Baha’i faith have come under persecution.

_ Peggy Polk

African Bishops to Continue Ministry to U.S. Conservatives

(RNS) Conservative Anglican bishops from Africa on Thursday (Oct. 28) refused to apologize for crossing boundaries to minister to American dissidents, and said calls for them to “express regret” are “offensive.”

In their first response to a recent high-level report on divisions within the Anglican Communion, the African Anglican Bishops Conference blamed the disunity on North American dioceses that had pushed the global church “to the breaking point.”

“We reject the moral equivalence drawn between those who have initiated this crisis and those of us in the global south who have responded to cries for help from beleaguered friends,” said the bishops, meeting in Lagos, Nigeria.

The bishops said the U.S. and Canadian churches must abide by a moratorium on gay bishops and same-sex unions that was included in a report issued last week (Oct. 18) on Anglican disunity. However, they rejected a similar call for them to stop meddling in U.S. church affairs.

“To call on us to `express regret’ and reassert our commitment to the Communion is offensive in light of our earlier statements. If the Episcopal Church had not willfully `torn the fabric of our communion at its deepest level,’ our actions would not have been necessary.”

The African bishops, representing half of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, have said they cannot accept last year’s decision by the Episcopal Church _ the U.S. branch of Anglicanism _ to install an openly gay bishop, or a policy by Vancouver Anglicans to bless same-sex unions.

The bishops said the future of the Communion depended on Americans’ decisions to abide by the moratorium. “Failure to do so would indicate that they have chosen to walk alone and follow another religion,” the bishops said.

The Anglican bishops received a nod of support from Nigerian Catholic and Pentecostal leaders during their weeklong meeting that ends Monday (Nov. 1). “Never compromise this stand against sin in the church, no matter the church,” said Archbishop John Onaiyekan, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria. “We are praying for you that the Holy Spirit will guide you as you stand to be counted on the side of righteousness.”

The Rev. Mike Okonkow, president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, told the bishops that “we are proud of you on your stand on the issue,” according to Ecumenical News International.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Pre-Election Prayer Service Focuses on Children and the Poor

WASHINGTON (RNS) More than 1,000 people gathered at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday (Oct. 28) evening for an interfaith prayer service focusing on children and the poor.

Leaders from the National Council of Churches, the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism and the Islamic Society of North America urged voters to elect candidates who would address children’s issues.

The Washington-based Children’s Defense Fund, whose mission is “leave no child behind,” organized the service.

“We want to draw attention to the fact that people driven by faith and the religious mainstream are just as involved as the religious right,” said Children’s Defense Fund Communications Director Avram Goldstein.

He said the service was “a symbol of broad-based thinking that single-issue politics should not drive the national agenda.”

Goldstein said children are an issue “that people can agree on across political borders lines.”

Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman was the last of several speakers to lead the crowd in prayer.

“O God, forgive and transform our rich and powerful nation which thinks security rests in missiles and bombs rather than in mothers and in babies,” Edelman said.

The Children’s Defense Fund sponsors a “Get-Out-the-Vote” project, which it says has registered more than 25,000 new voters in the last five weeks. Organizers say the effort is nonpartisan.

However, speakers Thursday criticized tax cuts and addressed unemployment, health care and education, all points Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has been stressing in his campaign.

Diane Knippers, president of the Washington-based Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative watchdog group, criticized the service as “a political rally to denounce Republicans before next Tuesday’s election.”

_ Wangui Njuguna

Swiss Monks Too Busy to Care for St. Bernard’s Dogs

(RNS) After more than 400 years of legendary service rescuing travelers in the Swiss Alps, St. Bernard’s dogs have become too expensive and obsolete for the monks at the Great St. Bernard Hospice to take care of.

The Roman Catholic monks at the monastery announced last month that they would sell the remaining 18 dogs in an auction but ask the new owners to bring them back for the summer, when thousands of tourists come to the mountain-top hospice to see them, according to the New York Times.

With the advent of helicopters and the use of lighter and quicker breeds like German shepherds for rescue operations, St. Bernards have lost their favored status at the hospice.

“We’re well aware they have icon status,” said Beatrice Troillet, a member of the Swiss St. Bernard Association, according to Ecumenical News International. “But monks shouldn’t be expected to look after dogs when they’ve important pastoral duties to fulfill.”

The dogs can weigh up to 220 pounds and each consumes more than four pounds of meat every day, reported Ecumenical News International. They are believed to have rescued more nearly 2,500 people in the last 200 years.

The dogs have not been used for rescue operations in some 50 years, said Bernard Leger, chief breeder of the dogs, in an interview with the New York Times.

But local businesses depend on revenues from the thousands of travelers to St. Bernard’s each year.

“We just can’t understand it,” said Barbara Ziegler, according to Ecumenical News International. “These dogs are the monastery’s major source of revenue. We can’t see any reason for selling them.”

Church officials have told the New York Times that it is only the administration of the dogs’ care that will change hands and that everything else will go on as it has for the past centuries.

Quote of the Day: Atheist Anne Nicol Gaylor of Madison, Wis.

(RNS) “When I started, the word `atheist’ was enough to set the phone ringing. But the flack has let up over the years. Freethinkers are freer to speak their minds.”

_ Anne Nicol Gaylor, who helped found the Freedom From Religion Foundation in 1976, reflecting on her years with the Madison, Wis.-based organization. The 77-year-old Gaylor, who stepped down as president during her group’s annual meeting Oct. 29-31, was quoted by the Associated Press.

MO/PH END RNS