The IRS examined 110 organizations referred to the tax agency for potentially violations, and 28 cases remain open.
Among the 82 closed cases, the IRS found prohibited politicking and sent a written warning to 55 organizations and assessed a penalty tax against one group. Those organizations included 37 churches and 19 other organizations.
I guess the PR people at World Harvest Church were a bit upset at all the face time fellow electioneering minister Rev. Russell Johnson, senior pastor of the Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster, was getting over the IRS complaint filed by clergy from 31 denominations this week. Rev. Rod Parsley, the founder and senior pastor of World Harvest, and television heart throb to shut-ins, came outside his lush estate in Canal Winchester, to speak to the unwashed of the media. A PR flack had previously made comments about the complaint.
Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell, Rev. Russell Johnson, pastor of Fairfield Christian Church and chairman of Ohio Restoration Project, and Rev. Rod Parsley, of the World Harvest Church in Columbus, hit back at a complaint filed with the IRS by 31 mainline clergy members over Johnson and Parsley using their churches to electioneer for Blackwell. In the Dispatch article today, it noted that Blackwell was the only governor candidate invited. Betty Montgomery, another candidate, who supported the gay marriage ban, wasn’t invited. Johnson said she wasn’t invited because she is “pro-abortion.”