Quasi-Church And State

When does a political ideology become a religion–or a political nonprofit a church?

Those questions weren’t uncommon back in the days of the “evil empire,” when a number of pundits suggested that the fervor of communists and fellow-travelers was indistinguishable from that of devout religious believers. When the world became less bipolar–when there was no longer a single, global menace (or savior)– those comparisons also faded away, but the underlying issue remains.

Now, with a new twist.

Is a religion any belief system characterized by an accepted dogma? Wikipedia defines dogma as “a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted,” and goes on to note that It may be in the form of an “official system of principles or doctrines of a religion” –and may also be “found in political belief-systems, such as Marxism, communism, capitalism, progressivism, liberalism, conservatism, and fascism.”

Belief in a deity characterizes some, but certainly not all religions, so that “marker” isn’t dispositive.

If a political ideology is indistinguishable from a religion, what are the consequences for a legal system that separates church from state?

That is just one of the questions that arises from a recent trend reported by Pro Publica— a growing number of right-wing political entities have been petitioning the IRS to declare them churches.  That status allows such organizations to shield themselves from financial scrutiny, which is undoubtedly the prime (and arguably corrupt) motivation. The article focused on the Family Research Council (FRC), a rightwing think-tank

The Family Research Council’s multimillion-dollar headquarters sit on G Street in Washington, D.C., just steps from the U.S. Capitol and the White House, a spot ideally situated for its work as a right-wing policy think tank and political pressure group.

From its perch at the heart of the nation’s capital, the FRC has pushed for legislation banning gender-affirming surgery; filed amicus briefs supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade; and advocated for religious exemptions to civil rights laws. Its longtime head, a former state lawmaker and ordained minister named Tony Perkins, claims credit for pushing the Republican platform rightward over the past two decades.

What is the FRC? Its website sums up the answer to this question in 63 words: “A nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to articulating and advancing a family-centered philosophy of public life. In addition to providing policy research and analysis for the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government, FRC seeks to inform the news media, the academic community, business leaders, and the general public about family issues that affect the nation from a biblical worldview.”

In the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service, though, it is also a church, with Perkins as its religious leader.

There are advantages to this change in status. Since the FRC was classified as a church (in 2020), it no longer had to file a public tax return, known as a Form 990. Form 990s list the salaries of key staffers, the names of board members and the identities of related organizations.  They also contain information about any large payments to independent contractors and any grants the organization has made. And as the article notes, “Unlike with other charities, IRS investigators can’t initiate an audit on a church unless a high-level Treasury Department official has approved the investigation.”

Very convenient. And not, evidently, an anomaly. FRC’s former parent organization, Focus on the Family, became a church for tax purposes in 2016.

In a statement, the organization said it made the switch largely out of concern for donor privacy, noting that many groups like it have made the same change. Many of them claim they operated in practice as churches or associations of churches all along.

FRC has defended the status change as a protection of its “religious liberty” rights, and noted that Treasury Department rules exempt church organizations from the mandatory coverage requirements for contraceptives. They can also discriminate with impunity–refusing to hire women or LGBTQ citizens.

I’m sure that delights them.

The article identified a rogues’ gallery of extremist rightwing organizations that have chosen to identify themselves to the IRS as churches, and noted that the IRS has been inexcusably lax in determining whether those organizations actually meet the agency’s own definition of a church.

Forgive me if I’m being dense here, but if these organizations are churches, can’t the IRS enforce the Johnson Amendment–the rule that prohibits churches from engaging in nakedly political activity–and strip them of their tax-exempt status? (If any of my readers are tax lawyers, please weigh in…)  FRC pretends that an affiliated entity is responsible for its direct political activities, but that entity apparently has no employees.

At this point, the various “churches” of Theocracy-R-Us are having it both ways.

22 Comments

  2. This kind of crazy crap must be stopped. Biden is at the head of the executive branch. Lets see some action on this stuff. And the POST OFFICE too. What is the point of winning if the power is not exercised for good purpose? LETS GET BUSY

  4. “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”

    ― Barry Goldwater

  5. Sheila asks, “if these organizations are churches, can’t the IRS enforce the Johnson Amendment–the rule that prohibits churches from engaging in nakedly political activity–and strip them of their tax-exempt status?”

    If the government and courts weren’t corrupted, the answer is Yes.

    The problem is the IRS has been hijacked and defunded by the same oligarchs who have hijacked and defunded our government and courts. The IRS has been ruling in their favor for decades — mainly to get rid of the donor names.

    Americans have a fight on their hands, and if you think voting D is the solution, you might want to inform yourselves of the facts first.

    ProPublica is independent investigative journalism– not mainstream. You can’t be informed by your television. How many Americans watch the tele for the news?

  6. “If a political ideology is indistinguishable from a religion, what are the consequences for a legal system that separates church from state?”

    The actual words of the 1st Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,…” does not protect separation of state from church. The Republican conservative evangelicals have used that “free exercise thereof” to enact laws based on their religious beliefs while denying millions of us the “free exercise thereof” our religious beliefs or the lack thereof. “Freedom of religion” no longer allows us “freedom from religion”.

    “FRC has defended the status change as a protection of its “religious liberty” rights, and noted that Treasury Department rules exempt church organizations from the mandatory coverage requirements for contraceptives.” This would require deleting the coverage for contraceptives as part of basic health care coverage which does NOT require anyone to use available contraceptives or any other available medications, including Viagra and erectile dysfunction supplies. Medicare provides access to prostrate treatments, surgeries and medications which I will never need; but I don’t expect Medicare to have separate male/female or religious policies to prevent access.

    Our rights to think and make our own decisions on basic life choices are dwindling away; President Biden cannot issue Executive Orders to end or provide these civil and human rights as we have known them until now. The Executive Branch is held in check by the Legislature and as we learned during President Obama’s administration, it controls opposition party Executive progress and allows their own party officials to run amok over the entire nation. Our rights and any progressive actions are currently stalled in the Senate by the Republican minority and kept in place with the help of Manchin who is protecting his fossil fuel source of income. “Quasi-Church And State”, organized religion or politics; state or federal, it all goes straight to FOLLOW THE MONEY.

  8. Thanks Sheila.
    If anyone is surprised by this, please check out the book, “One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America” by Kevin M. Kruse. This has been developing since the 1930s, and become a common practice since Reagan.
    Literally hundreds of conservative political organizations are operating as nonprofits.
    And rightfully so. Christian religions advocate authoritarian lords and kings, blind, and blind obedience: Perfect for overthrowing democracy and the U.S. Constitution.

  10. EVERY time a church, run by agenda-based humans, touches the strings of power in government, that government eventually fails. EVERY time. The evolution of the concept of separating church and state has saved societies from collapsing due to their own functional incompetence. “Beliefs” don’t do much for the poor, the destitute and the spat upon. How many ways can we spell hypocrisy.

    If we let the nose of the camel of religion, especially white, evangelical Christianity, under the tent of democracy, you can kiss that democracy good-bye. All we have to do is look at who this lot of fellow travelers endorsed in 2016 and still think he is the savior. That is what churches involved in politics do.

  11. “A nod to Todd”. While the Left has been screaming “defund the police”, the Right/GOP has been meticulously doing just that for the IRS and virtually all oversight run by/in the Federal Government for decades. Do the DEMs talk about that – nada.

  12. Unfortunately fervor tends to be loud and obnoxious, thereby gaining an advantage in attention getting and that seems to be the name of the game. Many news outlets have decided not to publicize the names of mass shooters. Perhaps they should re-think the policy of publicizing mass hecklers and yellers at official meetings.

  13. In those 63 words,”FRC DEMANDS TO INFORM” should be capitalized. being a G/K street squatter, it should be available for aduit. if it insists on demnading public servitude to its hoax. since it pays lobbyists to stand in line, by elected goverment officials,that demand payment to said goverment functions. if thares X amount of citizens who do not believe in religion or its god,again,like the gays and minorities, we shouldnt have to be under any influences/laws of the ALEC like FRCs BS. if these orgs posses the capital to influnece said officials, then they should be under public audit/Irs.. after all they as a whole demand we change for them and they use congregants donations to do so. unless of course swaggart sells one of his jets (his choice) to further his devotion to its cause..(then tax his ass)as ive surfed when my awake hours allow me,i sometime stop and listen to the same ol rehashed drivel they spout on any of the ,wide range of channels on direct t.v. (now lets boycott direct for being fox like supporter)neatly fitted in together as not to disprupt ones changing to another channel for another line of whatever their selling at that particular moment. since i see new blood emerging; to sap your consciousness into anothe state of renewed ability to watch more. (like our old guard,new blood is definatly needed,John Fetterman for prez..)of course they can not operate their theology with donations,er.
    where and what does this money really do? is there a set of rules in any er,church, to inform iis memebers of its end game rules? does the goverment agancy have any right to demand its adudit books? does the likes of the head of that sect,given a set allowance or payment to himself?(this crap of god sees the money as a reward for? pure bullshit) does the sect allow influence beyond the norms of its recognition in DC for the temperment of the citizens of the U.S.? if the church allows the distruction of our constitution for its own goals,then its not a church but a terroists group. any and all groups who demand a goverment change the people for its own goals,should be heaped into the terroists language. after all, i dont see gays and mechanics telling/demanding us to be like them.. if the influence by these sects are changing the free choices we have lived under for more than two centuries to be interupted by a con game that has really gotten out of control,then we should question it without regard to their needs. the seperation today of church and state should have a block wall between us and them, with their t.v. tower below that walls height.
    of those churchs who have ever taught tollerance, then its a liar.

  14. Is it time to end the tax exempt status for churches? Time to stop allowing “churches” to shield themselves from financial scrutiny?

  15. once the religious the hunted the weary,came to a country to bulid a new vision,free from the reaches of kingdom and pope.

    first line of Monster,by Steppenwolf..(thats rock) the words tell a story like Zinn..

  16. Todd:
    theology trumps any attempt in language to believe what your reading is,what your reading..

  17. “The nose of the camel?” How about the body of the camel, absent the tail, at this point?
    The recent, abominable, blatantly bogus, SCOTUS decisions have made it clear that theocracy is all but upon us.
    “…the poor, the destitute and the spat upon” will be even further marginalized when the church of McConnell, Scott
    and Koch is fully ensconced and the fellow who leads the Prayer Breakfasts IN THE WH!, is the Speaker in the con-
    gressional house.
    Barry Goldwater called it like it was, and is, and Democracy is in deep doo doo!

  18. There is clearly something wrong when a government subsidizes its own demise. Of course, that’s true now in the case of fossil fuel companies but it’s a revelation to me that it’s also true for the Family Research Council.

    “The Family Research Council’s multimillion-dollar headquarters sit on G Street in Washington, D.C., just steps from the U.S. Capitol and the White House, a spot ideally situated for its work as a right-wing policy think tank and political pressure group.”

    “From its perch at the heart of the nation’s capital, the FRC has pushed for legislation banning gender-affirming surgery; filed amicus briefs supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade; and advocated for religious exemptions to civil rights laws. Its longtime head, a former state lawmaker and ordained minister named Tony Perkins, claims credit for pushing the Republican platform rightward over the past two decades.”

    “In the eyes of the Internal Revenue Service, though, it is also a church, with Perkins as its religious leader.”

    Can a tax-exempt Fox Entertainment be far behind with its 24/7 auto dogma dispenser
    mission? That will probably only take one term under the control of Republicans and their trifecta of government branches.

  19. So now “church and state” has become “church IS state” under cover of non-profit statutory language? If so, I dissent. Some churches are profitable and pay well to such TV preachers as Osteen and others with their church-owned private jets, mansions etc., which raises another issue, i. e., that those who are not religious are nonetheless supporting the religious since the billions in taxes churches would pay but for statutory exemption have to be made up by the rest of us, thus amounting to a direct subsidy to the religious by the non-religious.

    As to the argument that small churches cannot pay taxes and survive, not so; if churches (like the rest of us taxpayers) don’t make a lot of money they will only owe taxes commensurate with their income, though I think that churches should not be enabled to secure returns on losses for fear they will deliberately lose money knowing it will be recovered and thus put us back to where we were, i. e., subsidizing religion. Color me suspicious.

    We need a whole new study of churches and other such organizations that are tax free based upon their supposed contributions to the greater society and whether such contributions are worthy of such treatment, but brace yourself for arguments by such favored non-taxpayers who will cite Boeing, Musk, Bezos, et al as non-taxpayers as well. Perhaps we need a whole new study on why many of the superrich individuals and corporations are occasionally tax free during profitable years based upon their supposed contributions to the greater society as well.

    Perhaps we should, as I have agitated for years, rewrite the Internal Revenue Code by government tax counsel rather than by corporate lawyers and to, among other things, reflect its patchwork and much-amended terms conform to our real experience in tax-gathering rather than lobbyists’ summaries thereof, and speaking of perhaps, perhaps we ordinary taxpayers will have our taxes reduced with an increased number of taxpayers who have been on the gravy train long enough. Let’s rewrite the code.

  20. Truth and love have always been uneasy bedfellows with religion, most often in spite of religion and with more frequency these days, an antidote to its toxicity. We need to accelerate the inoculations.

  21. As a medically retired Lutheran (ELCA) minister (although I pulpit supplied just this last Sunday for 2 services), I can speak a little bit to the history of Judaic/Christianity in America ever since Spanish Catholics and English Puritans landed here to have their own space/room for their own religious empire of sorts. Through the cacophony of discussion that was deciding an imagined Republic under some constitutional law configuration, it was decided NOT to make ours like the old: God Ordained Monarchy of any religious flavor. Period full stop.

    Of course we know that this has been an uneasy “relationship” for over 240 years between religious “rights” and the political state per Jefferson’s “wall.” This “wall” has always been tainted ever since then General George Washington insisted on having Chaplains (Christian, of course) in the Colonial military (note: I served as Chaplain in the USAF from 1995-2005). The taint upon Jefferson’s wall, as most know, has been shown in every presidential administration with a Senate Chaplain and House Chaplain who open and close every day of business with prayers to a presumed deity of a vanilla title aka Creator God, God Almighty, God of Peace, God of Justice, et al.

    In modern times, Billy Graham intentionally made inroads to The White House and Capital Hill when Dwight D. Eisenhower allowed Billy to help in the writing of his first inaugural address followed by the creation of The White House Prayer meetings/breakfast, and many other “conventional” spaces created to have good old down home religion circulate throughout the corridors of our “public servants.” The intentional road of “The Lord Jesus Christ” was built into D.C. to stay by Billy Graham only to see that road widen and branch off each decade, exponentially, to the theocratic strangle hold we see today upon our federal and state political systems.

    I saw and experienced NOTHING good about Jesus and “Born Again” Bush tag teaming during the Iraq War of which I was a part. Bush called it, Freudian slip or intentionally, “America’s Crusade.” The Arab world KNOWS all about that. That slippery road of political religion (and/or religious politics) quickened its pace and has been spinning ever quicker down hill ever since.

    We are, indeed, in a VERY sick and dangerous state of affairs these days….

Comments are closed.