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Lynn complaint language: "I believe this is intervention in a political campaign on behalf of a candidate in clear violation of federal tax law. I urge you to take appropriate action to correct this abuse of law."

UCC complaint language: "The evidence that the United Church of Christ violated IRS guidelines is clear and plain....I urge you to take action promptly to address this issue."

IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OBAMA'S appearance, Lynn was quick to issue a pass for his own church, saying neither Obama nor the UCC had "run afoul of federal tax law." Obviously, the filing of an official complaint signals there is a different opinion about the issue, and unfortunately for UCC members it is their offering dollars that must now be used to fight the complaint. To make matters more interesting, Lynn has issued a public defense of the liberal Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, who drew attention when he publicly endorsed Obama. Robinson, Lynn stressed of the Bishop who ignited controversy by becoming the first openly gay bishop in that denomination's history, was doing so as an individual. He approvingly quotes Robinson as saying: "I will not be speaking about the campaign from the pulpit or at any church function. That is completely inappropriate."

But allow Obama to speak "at any church function" and "from the pulpit" is precisely what UCC President John Thomas did. By refusing either to cancel Obama's appearance as a candidate at the General Synod ("any church function") or to insist that Obama refrain from discussing his campaign, Thomas did what Lynn praises Robinson for not doing. As the complaint against the UCC also specifically says, the UCC-owned website, clearly an Internet pulpit that is every bit as much church property as a physical pulpit, deliberately headlined a story from the Religion News Service trumpeting Obama's speech to the UCC as Obama's "first major address on faith and politics as presidential candidate." There too, Lynn praised Robinson for not doing exactly this kind of thing.

As Lynn is the first to say, the results of this kind of complaint can indeed be serious. Lynn's website cites his seemingly endless chase after Falwell as proof. After much televised back and forth with Falwell over whether the IRS had indeed punished the conservative religious leader and his church for their political activity, Lynn came across a May 1993 issue of a publication called the Exempt Organization Tax Review. In it he found this statement by Jerry Falwell: "The Old Time Gospel Hour...today announced that the IRS has revoked its tax exempt status for 1986 and 1987 for improper political activities....As a condition of reinstatement of Federal tax-exempt status, OTGH said it agreed to pay $50,000 in tax for two years and to change its organizational structure to ensure that no future political campaign intervention activities will occur." In an August, 2004 joint appearance on Fox News Live, with Lynn waving the report on air, Falwell angrily put his experience this way: "We went through four and a half years of audits and our attorneys and the IRS attorneys agreed that they would settle if we would pay $50,000 in taxes rather than a million dollars continuing legal fees."

Predictably, a search of the UCC website for "IRS" reveals nothing about the IRS being asked to investigate the UCC. (Nor has Obama's website commented on his role in bringing the attention of the IRS to his own denomination.) No wonder. What the search for "IRS" on the UCC site does retrieve is a March 2006 speech by UCC President Thomas complaining of the kind of tactics used by Barry Lynn. But surprise, surprise, the UCC's Reverend Lynn is not even mentioned. No, the filing of an IRS complaint is not about shutting down conservatives, it is the other way around. And who is to blame for these kind of tactics? According to Thomas -- are you ready? -- filing IRS complaints against liberal churches "reeks of Karl Rove."

Sure. And Sponge Bob is gay.

THIS IS ONE UCC MEMBER who believes that churches should be able to invite anybody they wish to address their members. Candidate or not. (And opening up UCC forums to the apparently terrifying idea of intellectual and political diversity by inviting non-liberals would surely help a denominational leadership seemingly determined to drive the church into oblivion.) But in considerable measure because of the activities of one of the UCC's own ministers, we are where we are.

"Complaints to the IRS are not lodged on a whim," the UCC's Rev. Karl Rove -- uh -- Barry Lynn - sniffed when dismissing the importance of Obama's UCC appearance.

Just so.

topics:
Taxes, Barack Obama, Religion, Law, NATO