Bush Administration Targets Episcopal Church for anti-war stance

The LA Times reports that the IRS has targeted an Episcopan church for an anti-war sermon in 2004.

By Patricia Ward Biederman and Jason Felch, Times Staff Writers

The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon two days before the 2004 presidential election.

Rector J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena told many congregants during morning services Sunday that a guest sermon by the church's former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, on Oct. 31, 2004, had prompted a letter from the IRS.

In his sermon, Regas, who from the pulpit opposed both the Vietnam War and 1991's Gulf War, imagined Jesus participating in a political debate with then-candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas said that "good people of profound faith" could vote for either man, and did not tell parishioners whom to support.

It's rather noteworthy, I would think, that none of the churches of the religious right that espouse anti-gay-marriage amendments, abolishing abortion, etc. have been targeted with loss of their tax-exempt status. May of them have gone much further over the line than this church.