Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether a prominent New York City church violated tax law by supporting Democratic candidate Al Gore for president.
Floyd Flake, pastor of Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica, in the borough of Queens, welcomed the vice president at a worship service at his church Feb. 13.
“I don’t do endorsements from across the pulpit because I never know who’s out there watching the types of laws that govern separation of church and state,” Flake, a former Democratic congressman, said according to news reports.
“But I will say to you this morning and you read it well: This should be the next president of the United States,” Flake said.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Washington-based Americans United, wrote to the IRS about what he called “improper partisan political activity” at Flake’s church.
Lynn cited a portion of the Internal Revenue Code that bars churches and other nonprofit organizations from intervening in political campaigns for or against candidates.
In 1995, the IRS revoked the tax exemption of the Church at Pierce Creek, a Vestal, N.Y., congregation that paid for full-page newspaper ads in the fall of 1992 that declared that voting for Bill Clinton was a sin.
Americans United had filed a formal complaint with the IRS about the church’s activities.
The church later sued unsuccessfully in federal court in an attempt to regain its tax exempt status. (RNS)
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