Church violating IRS rules?

Let's get this crystal clear: I've long supported organized labor and opposed corporate power. But my description as a populist seems to scare away a few who have been misled to believe that this label was devised as a shield for bigotry.

Nothing can be further from the truth - for I have no reason to support bigotry of any form. Quite the contrary, I'm rather tired of some individuals standing in the way of efforts to make sure people are treated fairly. Progress is what it is, and if you want to stick with the losing side of history, please don't pull everyone else down with you.

Peep this story out of Maine. After Maine legalized gay marriage, Maine's Catholic diocese is now collecting signatures for a referendum to overturn this act.

Let me be clear again: Leave it alone now.

But there's another issue in play here that's just as serious: There have been complaints that the diocese is violating IRS tax regulations for nonprofits by engaging in political activity.

And these complaints are valid.

Let me spell it out for you: The. Diocese. Is. Violating. Tax. Rules. End of story. I don't know to what extent it's gone on already, but I don't think there's much doubt that the Church is violating tax rules now.

What's sad is that it violates tax rules over THIS, of all things! The IRS rules are the IRS rules, I know, but if the Church wanted to challenge IRS regulations, why didn't it pick a better issue?

After the discovery that the Catholic Church was running abusive reform schools in Ireland for 100 years, it sounds like the Church has more important things to worry about than gay marriage. An organization should confront its own problems instead of interfering in everyone else's private lives (especially since America is supposed to have separation of church and state).

(Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/21/national/a123659D01.DTL)