IRS investigates Obama's denomination By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion
Writer
47 minutes ago

NEW YORK - The IRS is investigating the United Church of Christ over a
speech Sen. Barack Obama gave at its national meeting last year after
he became a candidate for president, the denomination said Tuesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Obama, an Illinois Democrat, belongs to the 1.2 million-member
Protestant group through his Chicago congregation.

In a letter the denomination received Monday, the IRS said "reasonable
belief exists" that the circumstances surrounding the speech violated
restrictions on political activity for tax-exempt organizations. The
denomination has denied any wrongdoing.

Obama, a member of Trinity United Church of Christ, spoke about faith
and public life at the denomination's June 2007 General Synod in
Hartford, Conn.

The IRS said in the letter that it was concerned about articles posted
on the church's Web site and on other sites stating that Obama had
addressed nearly 10,000 people at the event. The agency also said
Obama volunteers had staffed campaign tables "outside the center to
promote his campaign."

The Rev. J. Bennett Guess, a spokesman for the Cleveland-based
denomination, said a group of Obama volunteers was outside the
Hartford Civic Center, where the event took place, but that they were
told they could not enter the meeting.

The UCC had invited Obama to speak a year before he announced he was
running for president because of his involvement in the denomination,
Guess said.

Church leaders consulted with lawyers before the event on following
IRS rules. Before Obama spoke, a top church official told the crowd
that the senator's talk was not a campaign-related event and that no
leaflets or other signs of political support would be allowed.

Nonprofits are barred from endorsing candidates or providing support
for campaigns, although groups are allowed to invite candidates to
address them and many do so. Guess said no other presidential
candidates were invited because Obama was the only one active in the
UCC.

The Rev. John H. Thomas, president of the denomination, called the
inquiry "disturbing."

"When the invitation to an elected public official to speak to the
national meeting of his own church family is called into question, it
has a chilling effect on every religious community," Thomas said in a
statement.

Amy Brundage, an Obama spokeswoman, insisted the speech was not a
campaign event. In the address, Obama spoke about his personal
spiritual journey and had said that faith had been misused in the past
to divide Americans, partly because of the Christian right.

The IRS has stepped up its monitoring of the political activity of
nonprofit groups during the 2008 election. It is more common for
individual congregations to be targeted, not entire denominations, but
very large ministries have been investigated in the past.

The inquiries can take years. Punishments can range from a financial
penalty to loss of tax-exempt status -- an outcome that church
attorneys call the "death penalty" for nonprofits.

The IRS does not comment on investigations because tax information is
confidential.

J. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for
Religious Liberty, which defends religious groups against government
interference, called the timing of the investigation "peculiar." But
he said he generally has found the IRS to be nonpartisan.

"They have not gone after the left or the right or one party over
another," Walker said. "Both sides have accused the service of doing
that, but my impression is that they've done a pretty good job being
nonpartisan."

____

United Church of Christ, link to IRS letter:

http://www.ucc.org/news/obama-speech-in-2007-prompts-1.html