I’m Sorry, The IRS Is Doing WHAT, Exactly?? *Open Thread*

I suppose after the revelation that the IRS was targeting groups, both political and religious, with whom this Administration had issues, I should not be surprised by this latest news. I mean, really – that was bad enough, and should have resulted in a host of heads rolling, though that seems to have been a pipe dream.

But now, according to this National Review article, the IRS seems to be in cahoots with Atheist groups to keep a watch on churches. Oh, how I wish I was kidding about this. From the National Review:

It was bad enough, as I wrote here last August, that the Internal Revenue Service appeared to reach an agreement to monitor the pulpits of ill-favored churches. What’s worse is that the IRS, directly counter to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requirements, steadfastly has refused to make public key documents pertaining to that decision.

So the IRS, acting with the whole power of government behind it, seems to be saying it can monitor and presumably punish churches for the content of their sermons, but the churches can’t know exactly if, how, and why they are being monitored. (RELATED: The House Takes On IRS Lawlessness)

To fight this combined assault on religious liberty and on government transparency, conservative legal stalwarts Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Judicial Watch together filed suit April 9 to force release of the IRS documents. ADF asserts that the IRS already has shared the documents with the atheist Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). Once again, the IRS bends over backwards on behalf of leftists while harassing and ignoring the rights, on multiple levels, of conservative groups or faith communities.

And if the IRS continues to flout FOIA, we ought to treat its obstinacy as a major scandal. Then again, the IRS’s connivance with FFRF is itself a scandalous and deliberate trampling of our founding freedom of religious exercise and expression, guaranteed by the First Amendment.

I have read the First Amendment a bunch of times. It is not at all unclear on its intent:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Now, I am no Constitutional Law attorney, but is that not glaringly obvious? Seems clear to me. So why is the IRS targeting these churches in the first place, much less while in cahoots with ATHEIST groups?

And let’s just be clear on one major point here: atheism IS a religious choice. So for the IRS to join forces with atheists is choosing sides in a BIG way, and they are doing it in a most deplorable manner.

You may wonder how all this came to be in the first place. I bet you could guess, but here is how it all began:

The controversy arose when FFRF sued the IRS to force it to monitor churches (the IRS apparently monitored at least 99 churches) for alleged lack of compliance with rules against express electioneering by nonprofit organizations. As executive agencies under Barack Obama so often have done, the IRS reached a friendly settlement to dismiss the suit. FFRF was so pleased with the settlement that it claimed, in a headline: “Anti-church electioneering victory is final.” FFRF described how it achieved its “major victory”:

FFRF agreed to voluntarily dismiss its closely watched federal lawsuit against the IRS after being given evidence that the IRS has authorized procedures and “signature authority” to resume initiating church tax investigations and examinations.

The ADF, on behalf of threatened churches, merely demanded through FOIA that the IRS share that same “evidence” with it, including details about the new “procedures.” Pretty basic stuff. Not only does the public in general have the right to know the basis for and substance of a federal agency’s procedures, but the parties directly affected (or targeted) by those procedures, as per a legal settlement, are especially entitled to that information. That’s the law. It’s also Common Sense 101.

[…]

And the IRS now has violated even the latest deadline it set for itself, after its first illegal extension, without even bothering to give further notice that it is doing so.

Because that is how they roll, dontcha know. As the author, Hillyer, pointed out in the article, the IRS is a LOT less understanding when regular old American citizens miss their deadlines with the IRS. More “Do as I say, not as I do!” mentality from this agency under Obama.

But it is even worse, more insidious, and unconstitutional than that:

Completely apart from the administrative law-breaking, it is that First Amendment right that remains the nub of the underlying case. The public has been bombarded in recent weeks with stories of battles about the limits of private expressions of faith in the business world. What the IRS apparently is doing, at the atheist group’s request, attacks faith at an even more fundamental level than that: inside the churches’ own doors, at their very pulpits.

As Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1808, “I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, disciplines, or exercises.”

Surely, if a government agency is monitoring religious institutions in a way that could lead to such intermeddling, the public deserves an explanation of how, why, when, and where such monitoring is taking place. But this is Obama’s IRS. It seems to think it answers to nobody. The courts must disabuse it of that virtually criminal notion, with every power at the courts’ disposal. (Click here to read the rest.)

Without a doubt the courts must step in and protect the fundamental, Constitutional, rights of churches to not be subjected to this kind of corrupt monitoring by churches of the most powerful of government agencies while working in service to one particular religious group. This must be stopped. Churches need to cry out from the highest rafters about this latest abuse directed at Christians in this country by our government.

I seem to recall that this country was founded in no small part on religious freedom. It is past time for our government and its agencies to bear that in mind.

At least that’s what I think. How about you? This is an Open Thread.

Tags: Atheirst Group, Churches, First Amendment, IRS, Religious Freedom