El Paso Pastor Tom Brown’s actions reported to IRS
The IRS has received a complaint about politics and religion in El Paso.
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group, on Tuesday complained that Pastor Tom Brown is abusing his church’s tax exemption by advocating that Mayor John Cook and city Reps. Susie Byrd and Steve Ortega be recalled.
Brown, president and pastor of the 1,500-member Word of Life Church on the East Side, said he hasn’t violated any rules.
He is spearheading the recall drives because Cook, Byrd and Ortega voted to restore health benefits to gay and unmarried partners of city employees after voters last November overturned the benefit. Brown announced the drive late last month to his congregation and has written in support of it on his Tom Brown Ministries website.
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said his group files such complaints against about “eight or 10” tax-exempt groups nationwide each election cycle.
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Brown was asked Tuesday about his announcement of his recall drive to his congregation on June 28.
“What does it matter?” he asked. “Where is that breaking IRS regulations?”
Brown said his lawyer told him that in terms of an IRS exemption, involvement in a recall election is not the same as the regular election of a political candidate.
Lynn said it is.
This is not the first time Brown and his wife, Sonia Brown, have been accused of violating IRS rules.
Angry about the city’s handling of the domestic partners issue, Sonia Brown ran unsuccessfully for a City Council seat in the May election.
She said her candidacy was announced from the pulpit of Word of Life Church and congregants were instructed to meet her in the vestibule if they wanted to volunteer. Critics said that was a violation of IRS rules, but it’s unclear whether anyone complained.
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