A candidate for the Abilene City Council said the churches made an honest mistake by donating. The race has been beset by allegations of electioneering by churches. Texas TexasPolitics SeparationOfChurchAndState WestTexas
Despite IRS prohibitions against political campaign activity, three West Texas churches made donations to Scott Beard, a pastor who is running for Abilene City Council.
The donations represent a new level of brazenness as some churches across Texas and the United States become more active in political campaigns, a prominent expert said. Rules say campaign contributions from churches and other nonprofits “clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity.”
The IRS can strip violators of their tax-exempt status, but there’s only one publicly known example of it doing so, nearly 30 years ago. Brunson said this lack of enforcement has emboldened bad actors, and he called on Congress to explicitly tell the IRS it can also fine violators. Dewey Hall, the pastor of Fountaingate Merkel Church, which is nearly 18 miles west of Abilene and not affiliated with Beard’s church, said Beard told him on Wednesday that his church’s $200 donation was illegal, but he thought Beard would “be a good councilman, and we need to have Christians in politics nowadays.”
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