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Christian Coalition Suit against
the IRS is called 'Desperate'

Pat Robertson & Jerry Falwell
are Labeled 'Evil' by McCain

Gary Bauer Calls on GOP Candidate
to Retract his Statement

Compiled By GayToday

Washington, D.C.--The Christian Coalition's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service is a desperate move that is certain to fail, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

On February 25 the Coalition filed suit against the IRS in U.S. district court in Norfolk, charging that the federal tax agency unfairly denied the group tax exemption.

Said Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn:

"This lawsuit is an act of desperation by a group that has lost much of its membership and even more of its credibility. There is not a shred of evidence that the current IRS has any ideological bias."

Tax exempt? Sure, says Pat Robertson about his Christian Coalition. Running attack ads against a political candidate surely is the act of a non-partisian organization.

Lynn said a mountain of evidence shows that TV preacher Pat Robertson's group is a political machine that does not deserve tax exemption. Americans United has submitted volumes of evidence to the IRS documenting the Coalition's political character, Lynn said, including a tape of a closed-door Robertson speech in which the TV preacher called on the group's state leaders to emulate Tammany Hall, one of the most corrupt political machines of American history.

"The Christian Coalition deserves tax exemption about as much as Bob Jones University deserves an award from the NAACP," quipped Lynn.

Lynn said the lawsuit is probably motivated by mundane political concerns.

"After the IRS denied the Coalition tax exemption last year, Robertson and his cronies tried to do an end-run," Lynn noted. "They announced that they would use the tax exemption of the group's Texas affiliate for the national organization. But they made it clear that they would keep doing the partisan political projects that made the IRS rule against them in the first place.

"This pathetic shell game is very unlikely to fool the IRS," Lynn continued. "The Coalition is probably going into court now to try to position itself to fight off renewed IRS scrutiny."

The Coalition has not changed its ways. It is currently preparing to distribute supposedly unbiased voter guides for the California presidential primary that are actually stacked to favor Republican candidate Gov. George W. Bush and lambaste his leading opponent, Sen. John McCain. Congressional candidates are also targeted.

Lynn also charged that the lawsuit is a fund-raising ploy.

"Robertson's group has faced severe financial and personnel problems," Lynn noted. "The lawsuit is undoubtedly a way to show donors that it still has some fight left in it. I expect the fund-raising letters are already rolling out."

Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:
Christian Coalition Denied Tax Exempt Status

Family Research Council Attacks Moderate Republicans

Pat Robertson's Troubles Increasing-- More to Come?

Related Sites:
Christian Coalition

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In the meantime, Republican presidential contender McCain charged, in an unprecedented statement, that both Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have been exercising an "evil influence" in the GOP.

His opponent, George W. Bush, who is beholden to both Robertson and Falwell for their unflagging political support, accused McCain of "pitting one religion against another."

Bush's hopes for what he calls "a united party" may, many political commentators are saying, go up in smoke. There is now in progress a fierce struggle between what McCain calls "Pat Robertson Republicans" and moderate Republicans embarrassed by the influence wielded in their party by religious fundamentalists.

In a speech delivered Monday, McCain called Robertson and Falwell -- "agents of intolerance." Yesterday, he castigated them for "the evil influence that they exercise over the Republican Party."

"To stand up and take on the forces of evil, that's my job, and I can't steer the Republican Party if those two individuals have the influence that they have on the party today," he said

"You're supposed to tolerate evil in your party in the name of party unity?" he asked. "That's not what the party is all about. That's not what Abraham Lincoln said our party was about. Theodore Roosevelt fought the forces of evil in the Republican Party to his demise."

He continued: "I'm hoping that one of the motivations for embracing our vision is that every one of Falwell's and Robertson's candidates lost in the 1998 elections -- every single one of them." The Republican Party's connections to the religious right, he said, is not a winning strategy for the November elections.

Gary Bauer, a supporter of McCain, is wondering how to respond to McCain's attack on the religious right.

McCain supporter, Gary Bauer, a former candidate himself, was reported on CNN to have called on McCain to retract his characterization of Robertson and Falwell as 'evil.'

Bauer, long associated with the radical religious right and a fanatical homophobe in his own right, addresses many of the same fundamentalist religious audiences that gravitate to Robertson and Falwell. What effect his support for McCain will have on those audiences is already a matter of speculation.

CNN's Tucker Carlson predicts that Bauer, because of his support for Sen. McCain, will find himself unwelcome at the Family Research Council if he attempts to regain leadership there.