IRS closes inquiry into Warroad church
Wednesday, July 29, 2009Grand Forks Herald: "The federal Internal Revenue Service has dropped its investigation into whether the Rev. Gus Booth violated regulations prohibiting churches from electioneering, the Warroad, Minn., pastor told the Herald on Wednesday.
And he’s not rejoicing.
'I’m disappointed,' Booth said.
Booth is part of a larger challenge to the half-century-old regulation forbidding tax-exempt charities, including churches, from using resources, including pulpits, to work for or against candidates in political campaigns.
Last year, Booth informed the IRS he was going to talk politics from the pulpit and then did so, telling his flock that no Christian should vote for Sens. Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton because of their stands on abortion, among other things.
Booth said it’s a simple case of free speech and the free exercise of religion, and that no government agency should be in charge of deciding what’s OK to say from the pulpit and what’s not."
