c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ In a possible landmark case, attorneys for a Vestal, N.Y., church argued Thursday (Oct. 29) that the Internal Revenue Service wrongly lifted the conservative congregation’s tax-free status after it sponsored 1992 newspaper ads urging Christians not to vote for then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton.

Appearing in U.S. District Court here, attorney Jay Sekulow charged the IRS action against The Church at Pierce Creek was little more than a political counterattack designed to silence anti-Clinton religious conservatives.

Sekulow said the Pierce Creek case hangs over conservative churches”like the sword of Damocles,”while politically active liberal congregations are left alone by the IRS. He equated Pierce Creek’s ads with political speeches made from church pulpits, and said both are constitutionally acceptable.”It is clear the IRS overstepped its authority in this case and reacted in a way that can only be seen as a flagrant display of bigotry and bias,”Sekulow said.

But government attorney Alan J.J. Swirski said that by putting its name and the name of Senior Pastor Daniel J. Little on the ads, and by asking for”tax-deductible donations”to help defer costs, Pierce Creek had crossed the line separating protected church political involvement from blatant partisanship, which is illegal under the tax code.”We think what the church did was unique,”said Swirski.”This was an official church act.” He also said the IRS has never sought to prevent Pierce Creek from expressing its political preferences.”It just can’t do it with tax-deductible dollars,”Swirski said.

Judge Paul Friedman, who heard the case, gave no indication of when he will rule. Whatever his decision, the case is likely to set a standard for church involvement in political activities, lawyers on both sides of the issue said.

Less than a week before the 1992 presidential election, Pierce Creek _ a 300-member, independent, evangelical congregation known as the home church of Randall Terry, former head of the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue _ placed ads in USA Today and the Washington Times that were headlined”Christian Beware.” The ads criticized Clinton for”promoting policies that are in rebellion to God’s Laws,”specifically,”abortion on demand,””the homosexual lifestyle”and”giving condoms to teenagers in public schools.”Noting the appeal of Clinton’s economic policies, the ads urged Christians not to put financial concerns ahead of the Ten Commandments.

The IRS entered the case after Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based advocacy group, formally complained about the ads to the tax agency. After investigating, the IRS revoked Pierce Creek’s tax-free status in 1995.

It marked the first time a bona fide religious group had ever lost its tax-free status because of allegedly prohibited political activity. Soon after, the American Center for Law and Justice, the conservative legal agency established by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, filed suit against the IRS on behalf of Pierce Creek.

Thursday, Sekulow, the ACLJ’s chief counsel, urged Friedman to order the IRS to officially restore Pierce Creek’s tax-free status. Despite losing that status, the church has not been ordered to pay taxes and its supporters may still claim donations to the church as personal deductions, Sekulow said in arguing the case’s political nature.

Swirski asked the judge to find that the IRS acted properly. In an effort to show the IRS has not singled out Pierce Creek, Swirski said the agency is currently investigating 12 other religious institutions also involved in political activities. Twenty-three other cases have been dropped for lack of evidence and four such cases have been quietly settled, he added.

He gave no further details about the religious institutions involved.

Following the court hearing, the Rev. Barry Lynn, Americans United’s executive director, characterized Sekulow’s arguments as”the hardest possible line. He continues to argue for no regulation of any political activity by a church by a tax agency or election law.” Lynn _ whose liberal organization is a bitter foe of religious conservatives _ called Pierce Creek”the most important case on religion and politics that’s ever found itself on the way, as this one certainly is, to the Supreme Court.”

DEA END RIFKIN