A Stitch in Haste

"To be tax-exempt as an organization described in IRC Section 501(c)(3) of the Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for one or more of the purposes set forth in IRC Section 501(c)(3) and none of the earnings of the organization may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate at all in campaign activity for or against political candidates."
--IRS Website

The chronic inaction of the Internal Revenue Service regarding the patently illegal political activities of fundamentalist Christian churches and clerics will one day go down as among the great scandals of American governance.

But today is not that day:

The Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has dubbed June 4 “Marriage Protection Sunday,” and is requesting pastors to preach about gay marriage and encouraging Southern Baptists to tell their senators to vote for the amendment.

“Supporters of traditional marriage need to bombard their senators’ offices with e-mails and phone calls,” ERLC President Richard Land told Baptist Press, “and preachers across America need to let the pulpit ring forth in clear and no uncertain terms on Marriage Protection Sunday, June 4, and help create a groundswell of support for this amendment.

Note that these are, by and large, the same sort of people who were so eager to denounce the law schools that dared to challenge the anti-gay Solomon Amendment's threat to their federal funding if they denied access for military recruiters. Since there is no difference in principle between receiving government funding and receiving a tax exemption, how are these bigots anything other than miserable, odoriferous little hypocrites?

If they're so eager to protect their parishioners from the Others Who Are Ruining America™, then these anti-gay "Christians" should have the intellectual honesty and the moral courage to surrender their tax exempt status.

Don't hold your breath.

(Via Good As You. More thoughts at Pam's House Blend.)