Religion and politics. Guess who's going to pick up the tab?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2002Feb16.html

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GOP Aims to Broaden Churches' Politicking
Bill Would Allow Backing of Candidates

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 17, 2002; Page A06

Although the House passed a campaign finance bill last week aimed at plugging a major source of special-interest money, it is considering another measure that could open a new pipeline from an unlikely source: churches.

Analysts say the bill, sponsored by Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. (R-N.C.), would allow churches to endorse candidates and spend money to help elect them. Under current law, churches may address political issues and invite politicians to speak, but they risk their tax-exempt status if they specifically call for a candidate's election or defeat.

The Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act has 112 co-sponsors, nearly all of them Republicans. They include Majority Leader Richard K. Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay, both of Texas. The bill would exempt churches from a 1954 provision -- inserted into the tax code at the urging of then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson -- that prohibits nonprofit groups from directly supporting or opposing candidates.
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But the lawyer who drafted the bill, Colby M. May, said it would allow a church to spend money on political campaigns as long as the spending did not amount to a "substantial part" of the church's activities.
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May directs the Washington office of the American Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit law firm active in conservative political causes. Its board members include television evangelist Pat Robertson, who has strongly supported Jones's bill.
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