SIOUX CITY - A nonpartisan group that works to'protect church-state separation has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Cornerstone World Outreach in Sioux City, alleging the church has violated its tax-exempt status by trying to influence the upcoming election.
The Rev. Cary K. Gordon, a pastor at Cornerstone, fired back in a lengthy statement: “Let the battle between state and church begin.”
In a complaint filed Thursday, Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for the Separation of Church and State claims Cornerstone sent a letter to area churches asking them to join in Project Jeremiah 2010, an effort to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices who are up for retention votes in November. The state’s high court ruled 7-0 in 2009 that Iowa’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
Iowa Supreme Court justices are nominated by a nonpartisan committee and appointed by the governor and must stand for periodic retention votes. Currently, Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and Justices Michael Streit and David Baker are up for retention votes.
People are also reading…
Americans United executive director Barry Lynn said Cornerstone’s Sept. 3 letter was a blatant violation of federal tax code, which prohibits churches with tax-exempt status from campaigning for or against candidates in an election.
“You don’t generally see this kind of aggressive campaign to enlist other churches in part of your activity,” Lynn said.
In the letter, Gordon asks local pastors to instruct their followers to vote out the three judges and offers a free defense in court against the IRS, supplied by Liberty Institute, a Texas-based nonprofit organization that represents more than 30 family policy councils nationwide, according to its website.
Project Jeremiah 2010 was organized by Cornerstone pastoral staff in conjunction with Gordon’s PeaceMakers Institute, Liberty Institute and the Iowa Family Policy Center, according to the letter.
“Pastors who join this effort are asked to commit to confront the injustice and arrogance of the Iowa Supreme Court by boldly calling upon their flocks to ‘vote no on Judicial retention’ for the three consecutive Sundays prior to Election Day,” the letter reads in part.
In a statement e-mailed to the Journal on Thursday, Gordon said those who seek to make “secular humanism” the nation’s “state religion” are hypocritical and are violating the original intent of the First Amendment.
His written response to what he called Americans United’s “attack” reads in part: “The orthodox Christian pastors of Iowa do not and cannot recognize, with regard to the definition of marriage, the imaginary authority of the Iowa Supreme Court. History has already shown who inevitably wins when state wages war against the authority of the church of the living God. So let the battle between state and church begin.”
An IRS spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter, saying the agency’s disclosure policy prohibited her from discussing any alleged allegations or the status of any taxpayer.
The Rev. Dan Lozer, pastor of Mayflower Church in Sioux City and Associated Church in Hawarden, Iowa, said he got the letter at the Hawarden church but didn’t read all of it.
Pastors are allowed to educate and allowed to state how they believe, Lozer said, but, if they want to maintain tax-exempt status, are not allowed to say how the church wants people to vote. Those without tax-exempt status can say whatever they want, he said.
“You can declare your beliefs. What you can’t do is say, ‘On this ballot proposition, I want you to vote like this,’” Lozer said.
Kristie Arlt, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Sioux City, said she did not believe diocesan administrators or priests had received the letter urging them to participate in Project Jeremiah 2010 and that she had not seen it.
She said the diocese does not support individual political candidates or parties.
“We do not advocate for any politician, whether they be Republican or Democrat,” she said. “We focus on issues, not political candidates.”
Efforts to reach representatives from a number of other Sioux City churches were unsuccessful Thursday.
Last week, Gordon filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice alleging Polk County District Court Judge Robert Hanson had engaged in voter intimidation through comments he made during a panel discussion Sept. 21 at Wartburg College that were published the following day in the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier.
Hanson, who overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage in 2007 when he ruled it was unconstitutional, was quoted as saying the effort to oust the three justices for their role in upholding his ruling was “misguided”
Hanson told the Journal he was not discouraging people from voting, only urging them to educate themselves and vote responsibly.
