What is Focus on the Family? You may think of it as a massive non-profit group dedicated to promoting a very conservative Christian view of the world, one that’s anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-abstinence, and doesn’t even recognize the existence of transgender people.
For a long time, that would have been accurate. But Focus on the Family is no longer just a regular non-profit, kind of like the polar opposite of Planned Parenthood. It is now, legally speaking, a church. Literally a church. They applied to be a church, the IRS gave them the okay, and that’s a big damn deal when you have a budget of nearly $90 million.
Consider this: Every non-profit group in the country has to file a Form 990 report with the IRS explaining (among other things) how much money they took in, how it was spent, and how much their top staffers made in salaries. It’s a public document, too, a way to keep tabs on whether a non-profit really is living up to its mission.
That rule does not apply to churches, even though they’re also technically non-profits. They don’t have to fill out the form or make it public. That means we don’t always know how much money big-name megachurch pastors make — or how much of the congregation’s money goes right into his pocket. We don’t know who’s donating to those churches or where all the money goes.
But as we mentioned this past February, Focus on the Family and the legal defense group Liberty Counsel have both declared themselves churches — with the approval of the IRS.
Katherine Stewart, writing in the New York Times, tells us what this means:
Why would such a group want to call itself a church? Short answer: money. Churches can raise tax-deductible contributions more easily, and with fewer restrictions, than other nonprofits can. They also enjoy additional tax shelters, such as property tax exemptions for clergy members…
Next, churches can also enjoy the benefits of dark money. Unlike other groups, churches are required to disclose essentially nothing about who or what supplies them with their funds. And Focus on the Family, like a number of other groups on the religious right, may worry that its opposition to same-sex relationships will land it on the wrong side of anti-discrimination law. After all, the “moral behavior standards” in their employee guidelines prohibit “homosexual acts.”
In short, Focus on the Family got a huge break from the IRS and it’ll allow them to spread bigotry in a much more secretive way.
Read the full story at the Friendly Atheist Blog
