Please Do This! Please, Please, Please!

I really want to see this bunch get shot down.

The latest harebrained scheme from Alliance Defense Fund, via Carpetbagger Report.

A far-right group in Arizona, however, has an idea: conservative churches should ignore the law — and in the process, test the law — on purpose.

A conservative legal-advocacy group is enlisting ministers to use their pulpits to preach about election candidates this September, defying a tax law that bars churches from engaging in politics.

Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Ariz., nonprofit, is hoping at least one sermon will prompt the Internal Revenue Service to investigate, sparking a court battle that could get the tax provision declared unconstitutional. Alliance lawyers represent churches in disputes with the IRS over alleged partisan activity.

The action marks the latest attempt by a conservative organization to help clergy harness their congregations to sway elections. The protest is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 28, a little more than a month before the general election, in a year when religious concerns and preachers have been a regular part of the political debate.

First thought: the Alliance Defense Fund knows damn well the IRS only investigates liberal churches. We are, however, facing regime change in November. (And I doubt that all the preachers in America are going to change that.) Maybe they're hoping their gambit will turn the tide and that the IRS will continue to be an arm of the far-right movement.

I wonder what the ADF's success rate is. They seem to spend a lot of time and money fighting lost causes, but I've never thought to track their record. (Any free speech issue on this is dead in the water.)

Here's more detail from tristero at Hullabaloo. Quoting Rev. Barry Lynn:

Said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, “This is a truly deplorable scheme. Federal tax law rightly requires churches and other tax-exempt groups to use their resources for religious and charitable purposes, not partisan politics. When the faithful put their hard-earned dollars in the collection plate, they don’t expect it to wind up pushing some politician’s campaign.

“The Religious Right leaders who lust for political power in America will apparently stop at nothing, not even the sacred character of the church,” Lynn continued. “The vast majority of clergy do not seek to turn their incense-filled sanctuaries into smoke-filled political backrooms.

“I think very few clergy will yield to the Alliance Defense Fund’s worldly temptation,” Lynn concluded. “And those who do will find their churches’ tax exemptions in jeopardy. I assume the ADF will provide a list of congregations unwise enough to join this move, and we’ll be ready to report those churches to the IRS.”

Tristero opines that Scalia, Alito and Thomas may have signalled the ADF that the "right case" has a chance. I think that we have to wait on the IRS, and I doubt they'll take action.

(And the real cynic in me says the ADF doesn't really care what happens to the churches, as long as their actions influence the election toward McCain. After all, the ADF is used to losing. It's part of the right's basic strategy: get it out there and damn the consequences, because they won't have to bear them.)