IRS Investigates Church for Possible Politicking in 2004 Campaign

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating an Episcopal church in California for possibly breaking federal law on political activities.

The move by the tax agency prompted Rep. Adam B. Schiff, a California Democrat, to write the IRS last week to defend the church, demand that the revenue service tell him about similar examinations of other nonprofit organizations, and threaten a Congressional inquiry.

The IRS warned All Saints Church in Pasadena that an antiwar sermon by a former rector, delivered the Sunday before last year’s presidential election, may have constituted improper intervention in the campaign. Under federal law, churches and charities must not participate in a political campaign in behalf of, or in opposition to, a candidate for public office. An organization that violates the law a single time can be forced to pay a penalty fee and have its tax exemption revoked.

All Saints Church denied any wrongdoing and said in a statement that it had a “diligently enforced policy against campaign intervention.” What’s more, the church is aggressively fighting the IRS — even posting on its Web site (http://www.allsaints-pas.org) a copy of the sermon and the IRS complaint as well as other documents related to the case.

The guest sermon — by the Rev. George F. Regas, rector emeritus — was titled “If Jesus Debated Senator Kerry and President Bush.”

Mr. Regas told the congregation that he did not intend to say how members should vote; he then described what Jesus might say to the candidates on issues of war and violence, poverty, and hope.

In a passage in the sermon about the war in Iraq, Mr. Regas said Jesus would have told Mr. Bush, “Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine. Forcibly changing the regime of an enemy that posed no imminent threat has led to disaster.” Mr. Regas concluded this part of the sermon by saying, “When you go to the polls on November 2, vote all your values. Jesus places on your heart this question: Who is to be trusted as the world’s chief peacemaker?”

In a letter to the church, the IRS said that a local newspaper’s account of the sermon had first raised concerns. The article characterized Mr. Regas as having offered a searing indictment of the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq and having described tax cuts as inimical to the values of Jesus.

Rector J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Church said in a statement that the IRS’s concerns “infringe on religious freedom and freedom of speech, and threaten core values which the congregation holds dear.”

Marc Owens, a lawyer for the church, wrote the IRS that “even if the sermon contained an implicit political message, we simply cannot agree with your assertion that a single guest sermon by a former pastor, who no longer is employed by or officially representing the church, can threaten the church’s exempt status.”

Mr. Owens, who formerly headed the IRS division that oversees nonprofit groups, added: “It seems ludicrous to suggest that a pastor cannot preach about the value of promoting peace simply because the nation happens to be at war during an election season.”

The IRS could not comment because it is prohibited from commenting on investigations.