Group Asks IRS to Look at Pastor’s Endorsement

By Jack Douglas Jr., Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Mar. 7–A Houston preacher violated a federal law separating church and state when he endorsed a Republican candidate in a congressional district once held by GOP power broker Tom DeLay, a Washington watchdog group said Thursday.

“It is not often I endorse a candidate for office. I want to know if they represent my values,” Steve Riggle, pastor of the 12,000-member Grace Community Church, wrote in a letter for Shelley Sekula Gibbs’ campaign in the race for the congressional District 22 seat, near Houston.

Riggle, who denies that he did anything wrong, said in the letter that he was confident that Sekula Gibbs, if elected, would work to overturn a federal law that prohibits nonprofit, tax-exempt groups such as churches from speaking out on political issues.

Sekula Gibbs, a Republican, “is the only candidate who will co-sponsor legislation to give people of faith their voices back!” the preacher wrote.

Sekula Gibbs led a pack of 10 candidates in Tuesday’s Republican primary, with 29.7 percent of the vote. She is in a runoff with fellow Republican Pete Olson, a former aide to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who received 20.7 percent.

In the general election, the winner will face U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, a Democrat, who added insult to political injury for the GOP in 2006 by winning the seat long held by DeLay, former U.S. House majority leader, who resigned after being indicted on charges of illegal fundraising.

In a telephone interview, Riggle said he broke no law by writing the letter — which clearly identifies him as senior pastor of Grace Community Church — because it was on his personal stationary. He has not discussed the race in his sermons, he said, and the letter has not been distributed by the church.

“It’s a letter from me,” Riggle said. “I’m fully entitled to state my title and my position.”

The watchdog group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, filed a complaint Thursday, alleging that Riggle broke the law and asking that the Internal Revenue Service investigate.

“I think the IRS will look at it a little differently,” Rob Boston, a spokesman for the group, said in response to Riggle’s claim that he was endorsing Sekula Gibbs individually, and not as a church representative.

“In this case, I don’t think Pastor Riggle took enough steps to separate his letter from his church,” Boston said.

Clay Sanford, a spokesman for the IRS, declined to comment, as did campaign representatives for Lampson, Sekula Gibbs and Olson.

—–

To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.