c. 2008 Religion News Service

UCC cleared in IRS probe of Obama speech

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Internal Revenue Service has cleared the United Church of Christ on charges that it violated tax laws by allowing presidential candidate Barack Obama to speak at a church synod last summer, the UCC announced Wednesday (May 21).

“We have determined that the activity about which we had concern did not constitute an intervention or participation in a political campaign,” the IRS said in a letter to the Cleveland-based church.

U.S. tax law prohibits churches from engaging in partisan politicking under punishment of losing their tax exemptions.

“We are pleased that the IRS reviewed the complaint quickly and determined, as we expected, that the church took every necessary precaution and proactive step to ensure that Sen. Obama’s appearance at General Synod was proper and legal,” said UCC General Minister and President Rev. John Thomas.

The IRS said they determined that Obama, a member of Trinity UCC in Chicago, was invited to address the church’s General Synod in May 2006, well before he announced his presidential candidacy in February 2007.

Moreover, UCC legal counsel advised Obama’s campaign about ground rules for the speech _ he was expected to speak about faith in public life, not about his candidacy _ and told church members not to engage in partisan political activities at the gathering, the IRS said.

Obama campaign volunteers who set up tables outside the meeting were not “attributable to the church,” since they were on public property, the IRS said.

Earlier this week, Pastor Wiley Drake, a California Baptist who had endorsed Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee, announced that he, too, had been cleared by the IRS.

_ Daniel Burke

Ala. governor says churches, not state, must rehab prisoners

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (RNS) Gov. Bob Riley on Tuesday (May 20) asked Alabama churches to shoulder the burden of caring for newly released inmates, saying the state lacks the flexibility and funds to help them successfully re-enter society.

Leaders from churches and charitable groups were asked to provide a wide range of services to former inmates, including employment assistance, housing, clothing, health care and cash.

Riley said the state’s churches can rise to the challenge just as they do in response to natural disasters such as hurricanes.

“If we can motivate the faith-based community in the state the way we do during an emergency, then we can make a difference,” Riley said to a group of about 500 people, mostly religious leaders.

Bill Johnson, director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, said the state releases 11,000 inmates a year and isn’t capable of providing the services necessary to help them readjust. Even if the state had the funds, such programs aren’t popular with taxpayers, he said.

The state will provide no direct funds to the program, called the Community Partnership for Recovery and Re-entry, but will coordinate the efforts of the churches and other volunteer groups.

“We’re admitting we can’t solve the problem,” Johnson said.

At a meeting that vacillated between policy seminar and revival, Deborah Daniels, state director of the Prison Fellowship Ministry, drew a chorus of “amens” when she said faith is a necessary component of rehabilitation.

“We allowed government to come in and take over what God’s people are supposed to do,” she said. “We talk about crime. But crime is sin. Apart from God, every child is troubled.”

Vickie Locke, director of the new state program, told potential participants that they have an advantage operating outside of government. If a church wants to buy a car for a newly released inmate who lacks transportation, it can do so, she said. Government has to provide cookie-cutter solutions to sometimes complex problems.

In a written program overview distributed to religious leaders, the state suggested 80 ways churches can help, including everything from financial counseling to cash for emergencies. They also could mentor former inmates, provide day care for their children and help them write resumes.

Alex Luchenitser, senior attorney with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said it’s too soon to know whether the program will raise constitutional issues. But if the state government’s involvement with the program ends with referring inmates to churches, then it likely would pass constitutional muster.

“There’s certainly nothing wrong with religious charities providing care for inmates and recently released inmates,” he said.

_ Stan Diel

Possible Ark of the Covenant at risk in Zimbabwe, professor says

(RNS) A British professor who claims to have found the successor to the Ark of the Covenant _ or at least something like it _ says he worried the artifact is at risk of damage or theft in the political chaos in Zimbabwe.

Tudor Parfitt is a professor of modern Jewish studies at the University of London and author of the recent “The Lost Ark of the Covenant: Solving the 2,500 Year Old Mystery of the Fabled Biblical Ark.” He said he fears that as Zimbabwe weathers violent fallout from a contested March election and braces for a potentially bloody runoff, the vessel that Hebrews believed was the traveling house of God could get caught in the crossfire.

“It could potentially be a great asset to either side as Zimbabwe is in the throes of profound religious excitement, which includes all sorts of signs and portents of the End of Days,” Parfitt said in an e-mail. “The best thing would be to get it out of Zimbabwe.”

Parfitt believes the rounded, wooden ark likely traveled, in accordance with oral tradition of the African Lemba tribe, from the Middle East to Africa about 1,000 years ago.

Even though the ark was often damaged and rebuilt even in ancient times, Parfitt says, today’s more than 600-year-old replica remains precious. One reason: It was passed down through a clan with Semitic DNA and credible claims to a priestly Jewish ancestry.

Parfitt discovered the artifact on a dusty bottom shelf of a museum in Zimbabwe. The ark reportedly resembles the one Moses built accordingly to specifications enumerated in the biblical book of Deuteronomy. It turned up in a riverside cave about 60 years ago. Now the State of Zimbabwe allegedly keeps it in storage at the Museum of Mankind in Harare.

_ G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Quote of the Day: Michael Kinnamon of the National Council of Churches

(RNS) “Thanks to the wisdom of the planners or the Holy Spirit, I found myself seated next to Pat Robertson _ who, to let you in on a secret, is not my favorite theologian. But do I get to deny that he is my brother in Christ any more than Pope Benedict can deny that I am his?”

_ National Council of Churches General Secretary Michael Kinnamon, speaking about a recent prayer service in New York for ecumenical leaders hosted by Pope Benedict XVI. He made his remarks at the May 9 graduation ceremony of Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis.

KRE/LF END RNS