Turnabout is Fair Play

We've been hearing a little about conservative churches being monitored by liberal 'separation of church and state' advocates, to make sure that there's no political activity going on in the services, with threats to have tax-exemption revoked. Now a Catholic group is asking the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of a church in Florida:

The Catholic League said the bishop of Miami's New Birth Baptist Church, Bishop Victor T. Curry, "welcomed" former Democratic presidential candidate Rev. Al Sharpton and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe. "Rev. Sharpton, speaking from the pulpit, added to the politicized atmosphere by shouting, 'We're not people who are going to be beat twice,'" Catholic League President William Donohue said. "But no one was more partisan than McAuliffe: 'Bush has misled us for four years and will not mislead us for the next four years. Get out to vote and we'll send Bush back to Texas.' Consequently, the Catholic League will ask the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of this church," he added.

Interesting. And yet, when Rev. George Rutter stated from the pulpit that "No one has a right to take communion", it was seen as an unconstitutional act in violation of the wall of separation and should result in the loss of tax exemption. Terry McAuliffe has crossed the line, and if the church/state separationists are at all consistant in their policies and advocacy, they'll go after the tax exempt status of New Birth Baptist Church in Miami.

I'm not holding my breath. You can read the whole story here.

Posted by Warren Kelly at September 5, 2004 08:33 PM