Friday, November 11, 2005

Govt. Warns Church Re: Anti-War Sermon

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service has warned a prominent liberal church that it could lose its tax-exempt status because of an anti-war sermon a guest preacher gave on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, according to church officials.
Well okay, then. Just as long as you guys also unburden other churches of their taxless status – say those little eager beavers who regularly huddle in their church basements, madly scribbling out letters to Congress, and disguising the fact that the letters come from a church? (See Charlene Spretnak, who talked about this as long ago as 1982, in "The Christian Right's Holy War Against Feminism," in The Politics of Women's Spirituality.)

Let's be certain, too, to relieve Mr. Pat Robertson of his tax breaks – remember Mr. Pat, the televangelist who called on the American government to assassinate the President of Venezuela? I'm just guessing -- but could this have gotten a bit more press than the anti-war sermon above, seeing as how Venezuela called it a “’terrorist’ statement that need[ed] to be investigated by U.S. authorities….”?

And while we’re on Mr. Pat, I suppose you’ve heard that he’s dusted off his megaphone and is now announcing to the world that disaster may strike tiny Dover, Pennsylvania, at any minute, seeing as how it ‘voted God out of your city’ by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design?

Yes, never a dull moment these days, with the wingnuts winding themselves up tighter than cuckoo clocks.

1 comment:

obliq said...

One thing my father used to say a lot when I was a child: "Grin and bear it."

That could almost be the conservative rallying call against liberals. "Sit down, shut up, and eat your broccoli." "We're right, you're wrong, get over it."

That whole action against the "prominent liberal" church seems a bit facist. It also seems brazenly illegal and unconstitutional.

Since when did an agency of the U.S. government decide that a legitimate church should be penalized for not preaching the "proper" message?