Political Fundraising Ad in Church Newsletter Was Not an Endorsement, Pastor Says
A North Carolina pastor has denied that his church endorsed a candidate after it ran an advertisement for a church deacon's state house race fundraiser in its newsletter.
In last week's edition of "The Baptist Caller" Tabor City Baptist Church printed an advertisement for a paid luncheon with Brenden Jones, who is running for the State House of Representatives District 46 as a Republican and is a deacon at the church. The state's Lieutenant Governor, Dan Forest, was also present at the event which had tickets selling for prices between $25-$4000 a seat.
Despite critics who had claimed that the church had violated IRS restrictions on church tax exemptions by printing the advertisement, Pastor Bruce Schmidt said the inclusion of the notice was to encourage his congregation to be more civically active, not to endorse a particular candidate.
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"We are not giving an endorsement as a church. Which we're prohibited to do as a tax exempt organization. But we feel like it's very very important to give acknowledgement and encourage people to pray and do their civic duty and step up and be involved in the political process," Schmidt told WECT.
"We are honored to pray for and acknowledge our leaders, Democrat or Republican," he added.
Schmidt also said that he had vetted the advertisement through the church council before the newsletter went to print and that the body affirmed that they also would have approved a notice if the candidate was a Democrat.
Although citizens and groups are guaranteed freedom of speech, the IRS does not extend that right to churches, says the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) an organization which seeks to protect Christians' "right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation." Instead, the IRS states that churches "are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. The prohibition applies to all campaigns, including campaigns at the federal, state and local level."
Yet this regulation has not uniformly been enforced, leading the ADF to organize annual campaigns such as Pulpit Freedom Sunday. In last year's event, the organization encouraged pastors to speak out about same-sex marriage rulings and include critiques of particular candidates, in the hopes of causing a lawsuit which the ADF hoped would overturn this ban.
Jones, a small business owner, announced his candidacy in December with the intention of increasing job growth and reforming climate change initiatives within in his district.
The seat is currently held by Ken Waddell, a Democrat.
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