Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) wrote to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requesting clarification of its standards for investigating candidates' and elected officials' appearances at churches. Lieberman questioned why the IRS chose to investigate the United Church of Christ for possibly violating the ban on partisan electioneering with a speech by Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).

The letter states; "I find the Service's inquiry especially troubling because of the Service's inadequate guidance in this area. Publication FS-2006-17, which the Service issued in February, 2006, and posts on its website, states that candidates may be invited to speak at churches in their individual capacity, and that depending on the circumstances, such invitations can be granted 'without jeopardizing its tax-exempt status.'"

"But I am concerned about the chilling effect on legitimate activity by religious organizations that results from initiating a church tax inquiry without first satisfying the reasonableness standard, and I am further concerned by the lack of clear guidance in this area."

Americans United for Separation of Church and State asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate Grace Community Church, a Houston church whose pastor issued a letter of endorsement for U.S. House of Representatives candidate Shelley Sekula Gibbs. The pastor's endorsement letter identifies himself as senior pastor of Grace Community Church. "I have pastured in the 22nd District for 24 years. It is not often I endorse a candidate for office. I want to know if they represent my values. I have thoroughly discussed the issues of life, marriage and family with Shelley over the years."

In the letter to the IRS, AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn wrote, "Nowhere in the letter does Riggle state that he is speaking as a private citizen. . . . No attempt is made to distance the church from this endorsement. Although the IRS permits pastors to endorse candidates as private citizens, it cautions that pastors must not do so in their official capacity as congregational leaders."

A front page article in the Wall Street Journal ($$) discusses that Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., the pastor of presidential candidate Barack Obama's church, has frequently supported Obama during services. "Mr. Wright's and his successor's repeated enthusiastic promotion of their famous parishioner may be running afoul of federal tax law, which says churches can endanger their tax-exempt status by endorsing or opposing candidates for public office.

Scholars and attorneys say that a growing number of congregations are delving into issue advocacy and partisan politics, a trend dating back to the 1980s, when the religious right enlisted churches to fight abortion. An increasing number of complaints to the IRS over church politicking have triggered agency probes into both liberal and conservative religious groups.

In some instances, the church's ministers alluded to Sen. Obama without naming him. During a Trinity sermon observed by a Journal reporter on March 2, the Rev. Otis Moss III, the pastor, preached, "There was a non-Babylonian, a young man who heard the word of God and said, 'I have the audacity to hope!' Now the whole nation says, 'Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!'"