What Are You Doing Sunday Morning?
Nothing doing? Maybe you should go to church.
Tim Eyman is promoting “Referendum Sunday,” a WA state riff on those “Justice Sunday” rallies the religious right was hosting a few months back. The point of Referendum Sunday? Eyman is hoping to gather signatures for his anti-gay-rights referendum, which he claims is struggling. He hopes to get his petitions into the hands of church-goers all over the state. But Goldy has a plan…
According to the Washington State Department of Revenue, our state’s churches receive about $44 million in property tax exemptions annually—that’s tax burden that is shifted to ordinary citizens like you and me. But one of the prerequisites for maintaining this not-for-profit status is that these churches must refrain from actively engaging in political campaigns.If tomorrow, on “Referendum Sunday,ā€¯ these churches distribute petitions and/or canvass for signatures, or parishioners are instructed to do so, I would say that this would constitute a very real violation of the prohibition on electioneering, and would thus provide clear grounds for suing to have their tax exempt status revoked. Sound heavy handed? Well, no more heavy handed than say, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s penchant for filing Public Disclosure Commission complaints against school teachers who distribute political literature on school property.
So I strongly urge all my readers to show a little faith, and go to church tomorrow (focus on those evangelical mega-churches if you can,) and bring along a video camera or other recording device, just in case. And God forbid you find any prohibited political campaigning on church property, drop me an email.
It’s a great idea—and I’d like to join Goldy in strongly urging readers to head out to your local hate-spewing mega-church (hey there, Mars Hill) tomorrow morning. Let’s all make sure there’s no law breakin’ going on.
And Tim Eyeman is probably going to pay himself for whatever signatures are collected. Ther MUST be a legal way to stop this a**hole once and for all.