Religious harassment and double standards

Isn't it peculiar that the IRS isn't threatening to revoke the tax-exempt status of magachurch founder "Pastor" John Hagee or the activities of Pat Robertson for their endorsement of John McCain, but the United Church of Christ, the denomination to which Barack Obama belongs, is now an IRS target because Barack Obama gave a speech at a UCC conference last year?

On Monday, February 25, the national headquarters of the United Church of Christ, Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama's church, received a letter from the IRS questioning whether the church "has engaged in political activities that could jeopardize its tax-exempt status." They were given 15 days to respond.

The IRS is scrutinizing specifically an address given by Barack Obama last June. Church leaders appear confident that all rules for tax-exempt groups were met, and they clearly address the issues in a post to their website February 26. If they're correct, then does the IRS probe constitute harassment and a Bush administration breach of First Amendment rights?

The Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president, called the investigation "disturbing" but said the investigation would reveal that the church did nothing improper or illegal.

Obama, an active member of the United Church of Christ for more than 20 years, addressed the UCC's 50th anniversary General Synod in Hartford, Conn., on June 23, 2007, as one of 60 diverse speakers representing the arts, media, academia, science, technology, business and government. Each was asked to reflect on the intersection of their faith and their respective vocations or fields of expertise. The invitation to Obama was extended a year before he became a Democratic presidential candidate.

"The United Church of Christ took great care to ensure that Senator Obama's appearance before the 50th anniversary General Synod met appropriate legal and moral standards," Thomas told United Church News. "We are confident that the IRS investigation will confirm that no laws were violated."

Obama's General Synod speech prompts IRS to investigate UCC's tax-exempt status

Appropriate outrage is reported in the political blog of The Hartford [CT] Courant:

Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez asked Congress today to investigate the IRS' threat to strip the United Church of Christ of its tax-exempt status over Barack Obama's speech to a church convention in Hartford in 2007.

"If the IRS is successful, every church synagogue and mosque that invites an elected official to speak on issues such as the war in Iraq, abortion, the environment, labor and other issues of social justice could fear loss of their non-profit status," Perez said.

This fits right in with Obama being somehow obligated to vocally and publicly reject Lewis Farrakhan over and over and over and over and over again for an endorsement he didn't seek, while John McCain has actively pursued "religious" hatemongers like John Hagee and Pat Robertson and gets a free pass for their hateful activities? Or are Hagee and Robertson OK because THEIR anti-Semitism is couched in "support for Israel"? Or because THEIR hatemongering is primarily geared towards women and gays?