IRS allows churches to endorse marriage initiatives, attorney says

Conventional wisdom might hold that churches can never legally get involved in politics, but when it comes to issues — and specifically for 2012, ballot initiatives dealing with the definition of marriage — churches actually have wide latitude, says an attorney well-versed in IRS law. Voters in up to five states this year will vote on the definition of marriage — North Carolina’s vote on May 8 is the first — and many churches already are involved, urging their members to stand up for the biblical definition of marriage as being between one man, one woman. Still, many churches are hesitant to speak up, fearful that doing so is a violation of IRS law and could endanger their tax-exempt status.