So much for freedom of speech and freedom of religion

[miekec]

[...] The IRS has warned a prominent liberal church that it could lose its tax-exempt status because of an anti-war sermon a guest preacher gave on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.
The Rev. George F. Regas did not urge parishioners at All Saints Episcopal Church to support either President Bush or John Kerry, but he was critical of the Iraq war and Bush's tax cuts. [...]

(full article from which I quoted is here)

It just blows my mind. As my office-mate said (after I started sputtering when reading the article), if the sermon had been pro-war, there would not have been any problem.

Comments

[powerfrau.livejournal.com]

Welll, why they think that the divine will be happy that the warmongers wreck and regulaly destroy his/her/its creations is a bit beyond me.

[janjoris.livejournal.com]

Actually it does make some sense: Churches can be as political as they want, just not be tax-exempt at the same time. Sounds reasonable.

I agree though that the IRS should also go after pro-war sermons to keep the record straight.