c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ A church-state watchdog group has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate eight churches that allegedly violated their tax-exempt status by distributing Christian Coalition voter guides the Sunday prior to the November election.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of the Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the”partisan”guides were”deliberately designed”to help elect conservative Republicans candidates. Distributing them in churches, he said, violated IRS tax codes that prohibit religious institutions from directly supporting individual candidates.

Lynn urged the IRS to revoke the churches’ tax-exempt status or assess monetary or other penalties if the allegations are upheld. His allegations were contained in formal complaints sent Thursday (Dec. 10) to the IRS, which does not comment on its investigations.

The guides claim to give candidates’ views on selected issues. Lynn, a United Church of Christ minister, maintains the guides distort positions and always favor conservative Republicans. While the Coalition has the right to distribute the guides, churches are enjoined from handing them out, he said.

The eight churches are Bayside Christian Fellowship, Green Bay, Wis.; MetroChurch, Edmond, Okla.; Crossroads Cathedral, Oklahoma City, Okla.; Lighthouse Baptist Church, St. Maries, Idaho; First Assembly of God, Worcester, Mass.; Calvary Chapel, Santa Ana, Calif.; Wheaton Evangelical Free Church, Wheaton. Ill.; and Sonrise Church, Hillsboro, Ore.

Randy Tate, Coalition executive director, dismissed Lynn’s allegations as”religious bigotry.”Lynn, he said,”is once again seeking to discourage people of faith from taking their rightful place in engaging the big issues of the day.” Tate, who said more than 75,000 churches distributed some 45 million voter guides during the recent primary and general elections, noted that no church has ever been censured by the IRS for distributing the guides _ despite similar complaints from Lynn in the past.

Lynn said the eight churches cited Thursday were singled out because their cases were well-documented and because of their geographic distribution. Although Lynn and other liberal opponents of the Christian Coalition have long attacked the voter guides as partisan, this is the first time Americans United has actually asked the IRS to consider the tax implications for churches who pass them out or otherwise make them available to congregants.

The Rev. Arni Jacobson, Bayside Christian Fellowship’s pastor, said the guides”were simply a way of educating congregants about the issues. We don’t tell anybody who to vote for. We’re non-partisan.” Bayside Christian Fellowship is an independent, evangelical congregation whose most famous member is Green Bay Packer defense end Reggie White. White has come under criticism for comments he has made condemning homosexuality.

In November, Americans United asked the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of a Baltimore church at which President Clinton appeared just days before the Nov. 3 election. The organization said Clinton’s appearance along with Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who was then up for re-election, amounted to little more than a Democratic rally.

Americans United also filed the complaint that led to the IRS’s lifting the tax-exempt status of The Church at Pierce Creek, Vestal, N.Y., for engaging in partisan politics. That case involved 1992 newspaper ads urging Christians not to vote for Clinton during his first run for the presidency.

Coalition voter guides were not involved in that case, which is under appeal. A U.S. District Court judge in Washington recently heard oral arguments in the case. The church is being represented by the American Center for Law and Justice, established by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, who also created the Christian Coalition.

DEA END RIFKIN