Church, State, and 501(c)(3)

Our class remains on the cutting edge of societal evolution. Right after our discussion of 501(c)(3) status, the issue breaks into the press:

Southern Baptist pastor Wiley Drake said Wednesday he is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service for endorsing Mike Huckabee in a letter written on church stationery, and later in a church-related radio broadcast. The IRS has not commented on Wiley's statement. But news of the probe comes six months after Americans United for Separation of Church and State lodged a formal complaint with the IRS about Wiley's church activities. In a press release dated Aug. 11, Drake, the pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and urged other Southern Baptist church members to support him as well, the complaint said. Americans United quotes Drake in the complaint saying, "I announce that I am going to personally endorse Mike Huckabee. I ask all of my Southern Baptist brothers and sisters to consider getting behind Mike and helping him all you can." (Full Americans United document here.)

Americans United is itself a 501(c)(3). The Capital Research Center takes a dim view of it.