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JUNE
10, 1999 5:18 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: The
Interfaith Alliance
Amber Khan 202.639.6370 ext.109 / 888-941-9614
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| IRS
Denies Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition Tax-Exempt Status; Confirms
Christian Coalition's Blatant Partisanship And Unethical Political Strategy
Of Manipulating Religion |
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WASHINGTON
- June 10 - Today the Internal Revenue Service announced their decision
to deny the Christian Coalition a non-profit tax-exempt status because
of the organization's partisan electoral activities. The Rev. Dr. C.
Welton Gaddy, executive director of The Interfaith Alliance, a national
faith-based grassroots organization that has been a long-time critic
of the Christian Coalition's partisan manipulation of religion, released
the following statement:
"The Interfaith Alliance applauds the long-awaited IRS's ruling which
confirms our critique of the Christian Coalition's unethical political
strategy of manipulating religion to promote an extreme and partisan
agenda. The IRS's ruling is a victory for religious leaders and people
of faith across our nation who have in frustration witnessed the Christian
Coalition breaking the rules and violating the laws that govern all
houses of worship and non-profit faith-based organizations.
"The Christian Coalition's partisan and deceitful tactics have been
bad for religion and bad for politics. For ten years the Christian Coalition's
most effective political weapon was the dissemination of biased and
partisan voter guides in houses of worship before Election Day. Since
our inception, The Interfaith Alliance has been alerting religious leaders
to the unethical and partisan nature of the Christian Coalition's voter
guides. Now that the IRS has ruled against the Coalition, we hope that
congregations will close their doors to partisan voter guides.
"While this ruling is a victory, we know that Pat Robertson is not going
to abandon his narrow and extremist vision for our nation. Robertson's
desire to establish one religious point of view in our country is still
a real threat to all people of faith and goodwill. We expect the Christian
Coalition will re-organize, re-focus and re-double its efforts to maintain
its political power and influence in school boards, state legislatures
and Congress by actively and openly engaging in partisan politics.
"The bottom line is that people of faith and goodwill are going to have
to stay ever vigilant in their promotion of our shared values for human
dignity, respect, religious liberty and freedom because Pat Robertson
is not going away. The Interfaith Alliance will continue our efforts
to bring all people of faith and goodwill into civic life and to remind
our nation's decision-makers and politicians that Pat Robertson and
the religious right do not alone represent the interests, positions
or issues of our vibrant and diverse religious people."
The Interfaith Alliance is a national grassroots organization of people
of faith and goodwill dedicated to promoting mutual respect, cooperation
and civility in the life of our nation. From these shared principles,
TIA challenges those who manipulate religion to promote divisive and
exclusionary political agendas. With a membership of 80,000, and local
clergy-led Alliances in 38 states, The Interfaith Alliance is encouraging
the active involvement of people of faith and goodwill in civic life.
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