Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Republicans recruiting pastors to poison the minds of their flocks
The NY Times today reports on the efforts of Pennsylvania and national Republicans to enlist church men as Republican campaign volunteers.
Weeks after the Internal Revenue Service announced a crackdown on political activities by churches and other tax-exempt organizations, a coalition of nonprofit conservative groups is holding training sessions to enlist Pennsylvania pastors in turning out voters for the November elections.It remains to be seen if that "new vigor" can survive in an agency whose senoir management is riddled with Bushovik appointees. Perhaps their famed incompetence will prove useful here.
Experts in tax law said the sessions, organized by four groups as the Pennsylvania Pastors Network, could test the promises by the tax agency to step up enforcement of the law that prohibits such activity by exempt organizations.
Such a test could define the boundaries for churches and other groups.
Although the tax agency has often overlooked political activity by churches, it has repeatedly warned the clergy and religious groups that it intends to enforce its rules with new vigor this year, in part to correct what it considers to have been too much political intervention by churches and charities in 2004.
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