More Trouble For My Denomination

A short while ago, over on my old blog, I posted a report on how the United Church of Christ was being investigated by the IRS for allegedly getting too close to Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Sen. Obama, a UCC member, spoke at the 2007 General Synod in Hartford, Conn. Reports, and opinions, differ widely as to what happened there, and since I wasn't, I can't comment on it, but at stake is the UCC's tax exempt status as a religious organization.

Well, yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that Sen. Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. of Trinity United Church of Christ, may have crossed the line when he made comments from the pulpit that seem to endorse Obama's campaign. You can get to the article via this link.

Obviously, I'm concerned about the recent turn of events. But I find it hard to believe that the UCC is the only denomination, and Trinity the only church, that may have violated the IRS's statutes. Am I to think that even though Mormons voted overwhelmingly for Gov. Mitt Romney, no leader of the LDS church endorsed his campaign? And when evangelicals rushed to the polls in huge numbers for Gov. Mike Huckabee, it was because of individual thought and choice, and not because churches urged their membership to the polls?

All of the candidates have been appearing in churches during this campaign, in order to suggest to voters that they are people of faith. What I find hard to believe is that only the UCC, and only Trinity UCC's pastor, are suspect in transgressing the rules. Or is it that they are the focus of these investigations because Sen. Obama is the Democratic front runner? If Sen. Clinton was ahead in the polls, votes, and delegate count, would her appearances in United Methodist churches be called into question?

Honestly, I believe so. And while I do not know if my own denomination is guilty or not, or what Trinity UCC is doing up there in Chicago, it does appear to me that the rules are being enforced unequally.