The IRS and the UCC

MANIFESTO

In its never ending effort to snuff out any hint of liberalism, the IRS has seen fit to threaten the United Church of Christ (Disclosure: I've been a member of the church for nearly forty years.) with the loss of its tax-exempt status because "reasonable belief exists that the United Church of Christ has engaged in political activities that could jeopardize its tax-exempt status." This intimidation comes about as a result of Barack Obama's speech at the UCC's national convention in Hartford last June.

This is an obvious attempt to sabotage both Obama's campaign and the church's very existence. It's kind of ironic—but certainly not consoling—that the UCC's ancestor, the legion of Congregational churches founded in New England in the 1600s, were instituted because of a government that simply couldn't be tolerated. Now, centuries later, the UCC pretty much finds itself with the same mindset.

Once again, Bush-appointed bureaucrats have shown that they have no shame and would truly like to effect the destruction of venerable and what should be sacrosanct American institutions.