Apples to apples

Political sermon could jeopardize church's tax-exempt status

Lots of publicity, and properly so, for this story:

The Reverend J. Edwin Bacon told his congregation at Pasadena's All Saints Episcopal Church that he received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service warning that tax-exempt houses of worship cannot intervene in political campaigns and elections.

Bacon says the IRS is investigating a pre-election sermon in which the church's former rector was sharply critical of the Iraq war and President Bush's tax cuts. Bacon insists that the sermon didn't urge parishioners to vote for or against any candidate.

The left blogs lit up with outrage, but the most obvious example of the hypocrisy manifest in the enforcement of the IRS rules has escaped notice. Anybody remember this?

A bitter controversy over partisan politics at a North Carolina church shows the danger of electioneering in the pulpit, according to Americans United of Separation of Church and State.

According to news media reports, the Rev. Chan Chandler of East Waynesville Baptist Church in Haywood County told members that they must vote for President George W. Bush. Nine members who did not do so have since been told to leave the congregation. An additional 40 members have reportedly left in protest.

I know hypocrisy and inconsistent application of the law no longer trouble the Repugs or their leaders, but this is ridicuous.