WASHINGTON (ABP) — Southern Baptist pastor-personality Wiley Drake did not violate tax law by using his church's letterhead or his radio show to endorse Mike Huckabee, he announced May 18.
Drake, pastor of the 75-member First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., told church members and visitors that the government had cleared the congregation. An IRS letter that Drake provided to local media outlets said that, based on “all the facts and circumstances” of the endorsements, “the IRS has concluded that Buena Park First Southern Baptist Church did not engage in prohibited political campaign intervention in violation of the requirements of [Internal Revenue Code] Section 501(c)(3).”
Federal tax law prevents churches and similar tax-exempt organizations from endorsing candidates or parties in elections. If they do so, they risk losing their tax exemption altogether.
Drake — who has announced his long-shot candidacy for the Southern Baptist Convention's presidency this year — said in February that he was under investigation for using his church letterhead and a radio show last year to endorse Huckabee for the Republican presidential nomination. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, is also a Southern Baptist minister.
“After very serious prayer and consideration, I announce today that I am going to personally endorse Mike Huckabee,” he said in the press release, which was e-mailed to media outlets and written on church letterhead. “I ask all of my Southern Baptist brothers and sisters to consider getting behind Mike and helping him all you can.”
He said he believes “God has chosen Mike for such an hour,” and that of all the candidates running for president, “Mike Huckabee will listen to God.”
Shortly after he released the written statement, Drake also endorsed Huckabee on an Internet-based radio show he broadcasts, often from the church's property.
“Yes, I endorsed him personally and, yes, we use the First Southern Baptist Church,” Drake said on the show. “Everything we do is under the auspices of the church.”
But the IRS letter said that both endorsements were more properly understood as Drake's individual endorsements rather than official church actions. The press release, it noted, was sent from Drake's personal account and did not go out to church members. It listed his position as pastor “for identification purposes,” the letter said, and the endorsement was not “authorized or approved” by the church. In addition, it claimed, “no church resources were utilized in preparing or sending the e-mail.”
On the radio-show endorsement, the letter said the Wiley Drake Show is a separate legal entity from the church, and the church doesn't “own, financially support, sponsor or have any legal rights” to the show. It said Drake uses his personal mobile phone to call the organization (Crusade Radio) through which the show is broadcast, and that he may do so while “at the church on his break” or when away from the church building.
In recent years, some religious conservatives have tried unsuccessfully to undo the tax laws that prevent churches from endorsing candidates or parties while retaining their tax-exempt status. Opponents of such efforts claim the prohibition actually upholds religious freedom by protecting houses of worship and denominational bodies from being used by candidates and parties.
A conservative Christian legal organization recently asked thousands of pastors to endorse candidates from the pulpit on Sept. 28. The Alliance Defense Fund — which defended Drake against the IRS investigation — hopes that one or more investigations or tax revocations launched by the event will lead to a federal case that would test the constitutionality of the law curtailing church political endorsements.
Drake did not respond to an Associated Baptist Press reporter's request for confirmation by press time for this story, but according to the Orange County Register, he plans to participate in the organization's protest against tax law.
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Read more:
Huckabee endorsement brings IRS investigation of Wiley Drake (2/14)
Drake, SBC presidential candidate, calls for God's wrath against AU (8/15/2007)