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Three times now, including a complaint they plan to file today against the secretive C Street Center in Washington, D.C., the activist pastors have challenged the tax-exempt status of religious organizations they believe have improperly dabbled in partisan politics.

Their numbers fluctuate, but their mission is always the same: protect the divide between church and state.
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A nationwide atheist group is asking religious leaders to take Jesus’ advice and render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s — especially when it comes to taking the federal tax break on their housing.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation says the housing exemption gives churches an unfair advantage because they can compensate their leaders with tax-free housing. Other nonprofits, such as the foundation, can’t do that. So it’s suing the federal government to outlaw the housing allowance.
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Charging that the Catholic Church should lose its tax-exempt status, a consortium of atheists and Catholic activists filed two lawsuits against Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, Assemblymember Vito Lopez (D-Williamsburg) and the Catholic Diocese over their role in producing a recorded message sent to Williamsburg’s registered voters less than a week before they went to the polls.
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A school district in Georgia, USA, recently decided that cheerleaders could not longer display banners with Bible verses at school football games — one of those ‘Church and State’ issues.

Result? More bible banners than ever, now displayed by fans in the stands instead of cheerleaders on the field.

While constitutional experts agree with the new policy, and many locals understand why it is being applied, the fans are using their right to free speech.
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The ‘Christian Right’ has been a major power broker in U.S. politics for 30 years, having played especially important roles in the 1980, 1994 and 2004 presidential elections, and in Republican administrations since the tenure of former President Ronald Reagan.

It appeared at its apex after the 2004 ‘values vote’ election, but now seems on the decline under President Barack Obama. The Christian Right has no clear leader or central movement organization to guide it, and many younger evangelicals are turning away from their parents’ emphasis on a narrow set of contentious social issues.

Nevertheless, it remains a powerful political force capable of resurgence, Forbes writes.

Christian Right organizations are experiencing increased contributions and activism, as Obama and a Democratic Congress push socially progressive legislation.
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A couple thousand people gathered outside the Capitol in Sacramento this afternoon to rally for the legalization of same-sex marriages just days after voters imposed a constitutional ban.

The gathering follows several similar events around the Bay Area and California. Earlier today, more than 400 people gathered outside the distinctive Mormon Temple in Oakland to protest the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints‘ support of Proposition 8.
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A handful of people who believe digitized photos on state driver’s licenses could be the beginning of the biblical “mark of the beast” will receive special licenses from the Division of Motor Vehicles in Charleston, West Virginia, today.

Under the plan, followers of pastor Butch Paugh will be allowed to have their license photos taken at the Capitol DMV office and then removed from the computer system.
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Ignorance is the enemy of liberty. That truth has never been so forcefully made as it has been with the rescue of the hundreds of children from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Eldorado, Texas. As the clergy abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church has proved, Americans are all too willing to ignore evidence of child abuse when it occurs in the context of religious organizations.
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The inquiry into the Buena Park pastor’s actions comes six months after Americans United for Separation of Church and State urged the IRS to investigate the nonprofit status of Drake’s church because of the endorsement.
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A U.S. judge ordered the Secret Service on Monday to disclose records of visits by nine prominent conservative Christian leaders to the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s residence.
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The justices decided not to consider a challenge by religious groups to a New York law requiring health plans to cover birth control pills, and a California case in which an evangelical group was denied use of a public library for religious services.
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The Internal Revenue Service has told a prominent Pasadena church that it has ended its lengthy investigation into a 2004 antiwar sermon, church leaders said Sunday. But the agency wrote in its letter to All Saints Episcopal Church that officials still considered the sermon to have been illegal, prompting the church to seek clarification, a corrected record and an apology from the IRS, the church’s rector told standing-room-only crowds of parishioners at Sunday’s services.
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The IRS has dropped an investigation into an anti-war sermon preached at All Saints Episcopal Church two days before the 2004 presidential election, the Rev. Ed Bacon told his cheering congregation Sunday.
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You won’t find these Arizona religious groups in any neighborhood directory of churches. They don’t have temples. They don’t hold services. Instead, state and federal authorities say they are individually owned corporations, called corporations sole, that were set up to dodge income taxes. Promoters of the schemes rake in large fees and, in one case, used them as part of a pyramid scheme, authorities say.
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Christian legal group’s counsel battles on behalf of religious right in court — and advises President Bush (though apparently not on how Christians ought to behave).
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The Texas Supreme Court reversed lower court decisions today and ruled that state restrictions on what unaccredited religious institutions can call themselves and their education training violate the First Amendment.
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Last week, after an investigation spurred by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the Pentagon abruptly announced that it would not be delivering “freedom packages” to our soldiers in Iraq, as it had originally intended. The packages held Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic and the apocalyptic computer game “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” (derived from the series of post-Rapture novels), in which “soldiers for Christ” hunt down enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers.
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The American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of Slidell on Tuesday for displaying a painting of Jesus in a courthouse lobby, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
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Judge Paul Ridgeway said common law and state Supreme Court precedent allow witnesses and jurors to use the text “most sacred and obligatory upon their conscience.”
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Religion has no place in post offices run by churches and other private contractors, a federal judge has ruled, citing the constitutional separation of church and state.
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A federal judge heard arguments Wednesday in the long-running legal battle involving a West Rutland man who sued the state for the right to put a religious message on his license plate.
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Nearly a dozen high-ranking military officers and Pentagon officials came under fire Monday for participating in a promotional video for an evangelical Christian organization, renewing an outcry over religious proselytizing within the ranks of the military.
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Alarmed by an increase in political activity by religious organizations, the IRS pledged earlier this year to crack down on violators.
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An Episcopal church’s decision Thursday not to cooperate with an IRS investigation into an anti-war sermon delivered before the 2004 presidential election sets up a high-profile confrontation between the liberal congregation and the IRS, which usually keeps such inquiries private. The leaders of the 3,500-member All Saints Church voted unanimously to resist an order to turn over documents related to the sermon, which was given just two days before the election. The decision means the IRS must decide whether to ask the Justice Department to pursue the case in court. A judge would then rule on the validity of the agency’s demands.
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Government libraries can block religious groups from worshipping in public meeting rooms, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
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1. Court hears John 3:16 vanity license plate case
2. IRS combats fake-church tax scams
3. Bush's misuse of religion is inexcusable
4. Politics and the Church
5. Congressman sends letter to IRS over Pasadena church probe
6. Not so fast, Christian soldiers
7. Pentagon brass under fire for evangelical Christian promo
8. Judge turns down atheist's suit challenging 'In God We Trust'
9. Protests agains the Mormon Church; plus: Why the Mormons fight against Gay Marriage
10. Judge: School Pledge Is Unconstitutional

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