Freedom FROM Religion-- The American Way

This week I attended a seminar on church management and taxes.  It was very informative as well as disheartening.  There is a growing government intrusion into the affairs of the Church.  It is not only the IRS that has slithered its way into the affairs of the church but now we must contend with Homeland Security, FBI and the State.  These government entities are posing a serious threat to church autonomy and our most basic religious freedoms. Pastors are being censored, the proclamation of God’s Truth is being blocked, and churches are being discriminated against and threatened with punishment.

Where are those who are so adamant about the separation of church and state? They should be crying out about the intrusion of the government into the church.   During this seminar we learned that for a church to be compliant with IRS regulations and to be able to maintain your 501c(3) status an average of 119 forms must be completed each year.  Homeland Security is interested in the missionaries you support and how and where the money is going. The church is responsible to report money paid to evangelist, musician, special speakers, or missionaries.  It is important to understand the criminal liability one faces for not complying with all the regulations. The church is no longer a place where you can gather to worship and conduct the business of the church you must also conduct the business of the government.   To be a recognized church it must conform to the definition of the IRS.  These attributes of a church have been developed by the IRS and by court decisions.  They include:

• Distinct legal existence
• Recognized creed and form of worship
• Definite and distinct ecclesiastical government
• Formal code of doctrine and discipline
• Distinct religious history
• Membership not associated with any other church or denomination
• Organization of ordained ministers
• Ordained ministers selected after completing prescribed courses of study
• Literature of its own
• Established places of worship
• Regular congregations
• Regular religious services
• Sunday schools for the religious instruction of the young
• Schools for the preparation of its members

The IRS generally uses a combination of these characteristics, together with other facts and circumstances, to determine whether an organization is considered a church for federal tax purposes.  Source:  Publication 1828, Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations.

There seems to be two types of ordination one by the church and one by the IRS.  The IRS has defined a minister as individuals who are duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed by a religious body constituting a church or church denomination. They are given the authority to conduct religious worship, perform, and administer ordinances or sacraments according to the prescribed tenets and practices of that church or denomination. 

 Ministers fall into two classifications the first is the licensed minister is one who has been granted a ministerial license by the state or district assembly. The licensed minister is to have completed at least one year of the course of study. The licensed minister who is preparing for ordination is vested with the authority of preaching the gospel, administering the sacraments in his or her own congregation, and officiating at marriages where state law allows. The licensed minister who is preparing for ordination is vested with the authority of using his or her gifts in various associate ministries, administering the sacraments and, on occasion, conducting worship and preaching.

The second is the ordained minister.  They are those who have been ordained to that order, have completed the course of study, and have completed a specified period of assigned ministry. The ordained minister acknowledges a specific call to lifetime ministry. The ordained minister has the authority to administer the sacraments and to conduct worship and to preach.

In the past the courts have rules in defining a minister by the five following factors:

1. Does the individual administer the sacraments?

2. Does the individual conduct worship services?

3. Does the individual perform services in the "control, conduct, or maintenance of a religious organization" under the authority of a church denomination or religious denomination?

4. Is the individual "ordained, commissioned, or licensed?"

5. Is the individual considered a spiritual leader by his or her religious body?

(By this definition that would exclude many of the activist “ministers” we see in the news media.  They fail the definition of who the government recognizes as a minister.  Maybe we should use the same rules to identify minister who are always seeking media attention.)  

If you meet some but not all of these factors, the IRS may or may not consider you a minister.  Under the 1989 tax court case, not all factors had to be satisfied. It should be noted that only factor 4 that one be "licensed, ordained, or commissioned," needs to be present in every case. The more of the remaining criteria that one can meet, the more likely one is to fulfill the definition of "minister of the Gospel." However, some more recent court cases and an IRS Private Letter Ruling have required that all factors be satisfied. 

This was not the intention of our Founding Fathers, who established our country on religious freedom and who enshrined this precious God-given right in the U.S. Constitution. And throughout our nation’s history, churches have been recognized as the moral leaders of our society and Christians have enjoyed the freedom to express their religious beliefs.  But all of that is changing very quickly. At the urging of anti-Christian groups seeking to secularize America, courts and government are increasingly treating our churches more as nuisances than as pillars of the community. And some are treated not just as nuisances, but as criminals for exercising their Christian faith!  

During the seminar we were given examples where individuals are now spending time in federal prison for non-compliance of IRS regulations.  These individual were not intentional in their actions they just failed to do their due diligence in meeting government requirements.  Freedom of religion has become freedom from religion.

What really concerns me is not so much that the IRS, Homeland Security and the FBI are forcing their influence on the church but the number of “ministers” who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ that are reporting fellow Christians to the government for non-compliance.  Individuals who claim to be ministers but fail even the IRS’s definition of a minister are trying to destroy the church.  Charlatans like the Americans United for Separation of Church and State.  Supposedly, The Americans for Separation of Church and State is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization supposedly educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom but their actions are more directed to establishing the goal of their executive director that of a "godless America."  

I guess it is for the purpose of seeking respectability in the media, that these false-ministers like to use the title "reverend," even though there is no record of the name and location of any church the present executive director of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State has ever been a pastor, or the location and time where he ever delivered an actual sermon.  I would recommend that AUS remove the beam from their own eye before they attempt to remove the splinter from others. They should also stop lying about protecting religious freedom they are the arm of evil against the Kingdom of God.  

When the government gets out of the business of the church and allows to the church to carry out its duty to be the watchdog on the moral and ethical actions of the government our country will again be blessed of God.  But when good people are judged to be criminal, in violation of our First Amendment rights, we are all in danger of being oppressed by those who are anti-church, secular humanist, progressive proponents and a  tyrannical government.  If you have bought into the myth of separation of church and state you are part of the problem.

“If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
– President Ronald Reagan