July 22, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Nonprofit religious and watchdog groups are warning that President Bush’s re-election campaign may encourage churches to violate federal tax law by the methods it recommends for church volunteers to maximize voter turnout.
A memo from the Bush campaign to church volunteers around the country lists 22 “duties” for them to assume. Among them: sending church directories to the campaign to be compared with voter-registration lists; making sure that all church members are registered to vote; distributing voter guides in the church; enlisting pastors in voter-registration drives; and recruiting people to volunteer for the Bush campaign.
The Bush campaign memo was obtained and released by the Interfaith Alliance, a group that promotes religious tolerance.
The group’s president, the Rev. Welton Gaddy, said that while the activities proposed by the Bush campaign are not specifically prohibited by law, some could involve churches in partisan politics. Tax law bars charities, including churches, from political activities.
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a watchdog group, called the memo “a shameless attempt to misuse churches for partisan political ends.”
As it does every election year, the IRS recently warned political parties about involving charities in partisan politics. It has also issued a notice to charities reminding them that they may not endorse any candidate, make donations to a campaign, engage in fund raising for a candidate, distribute statements that promote or criticize a candidate, or be involved in any other activities that could help or hurt someone in the run for office (The Chronicle, May 13).
