If these churches run like businesses, do they compete with each other? How would you compete with another church? Does their religious mission (bring more followers into the flock) override the business mission? Will one of these churches ever go public? Just thought I’d ask. It’s an interesting phenomenon…

The LA Times is running a story about a church in CA that’s getting probed by the IRS. The IRS is investigating whether to revoke Pasadena’s All Saints Episcopal Church’s tax-exempt status because of a sermon given in November 2004 that the IRS claims may have violated provisions barring tax-exempt churches from endorsing or campaigning for a candidate. The church doesn’t focus on the traditional hard religious right issues like homosexuality and abortion but instead focuses on more day-to-day concerns like poverty and health issues. This makes it “liberal” in our modern political lexicon and thus in opposition to the Bush camp.

The sermon seems similar to the many given in, say, Southern Baptist or Evangelical churches across the country. The only difference being that it would seem to favor the other candidate. Vote your conscience, focus on the teachings of Jesus and vote your deepest beliefs. It seems OK if your beliefs make abortion and homosexuality the worst things in modern society but not if you’re against poverty, racism, and poor public health policy. But, of course it isn’t politically motivated. Why, that would be absurd, wouldn’t it?

Update: A transcript (PDF) of Regas’s sermon is available on the church web site.