Who Filed IRS Complaint?

As everyone knows by now, the United Church of Christ in under investigation by the IRS. We’ve been charged with somehow promoting the presidential campaign of Barack Obama by inviting him to speak at our General Synod last summer. Senator Obama is a member of the UCC and was among 60 different speakers at Synod and as this video shows his appearance was not a campaign event. He was invited to talk about his faith.

So who filed the IRS complaint? One columnist, Colin McEnroe, believes it was the person behind UCCtruths. Street Prophets begs to differ:

I don't agree with McEnroe's idea that UCCTruths is behind the IRS complaint. Chuck Currie's closer to the mark when he says "Once again UCCtruths turns up as a front for conservative groups trying to undermine the ministries of the United Church of Christ." They're mostly interested in kvetching about the UCC, but whoever filed that complaint had some legal assistance. That'd take too much initiative for the UCCTruths folks.

Nor do I think McEnroe's snarky idea that the complaint came from one Hxxxxxy Cxxxxxn is accurate. Since the letter to the IRS is more focused on the UCC than on Obama, my hunch is that whoever it was had an axe to grind with the denomination. I'm guessing it was the Biblical Witness Fellowship or one of their supporters. We'll never know, of course, so my guess will have to remain just that. But they have the obvious motive and means. Draw your own conclusions.

Biblical Witness Fellowship (BWF), for those who don't know, is a group aligned with the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative political group whose stated mission is to "reform mainline churches." And by "reform" they mean destroy. IRD has spent millions of dollars over the years trying to discredit church leaders - upset over positions taken by mainline churches related to the war in Iraq (IRD supports it) or global warming (IRD doesn't believe global warming is real). They are so far to the right that they often criticize the Religious Right for not being conservative enough. BWF, a group formed to fight the UCC's pro-choice stance and that has worked to oppose basic civil rights for gays and lesbians, is part of IRD's so-called "Association for Church Renewal."

Note: Cartoon used by permission from Bob Englehart