The IRS goes to church?!

So many interesting e-mails cross the transom in a day. Many bring compelling First Amendment issues to the attention of SPJ's national leaders.

I truly wish the Society had the bandwidth to address every single one of those issues with a flurry of press releases, indignant op-ed pieces and legal support, but it doesn't. SPJ has to draw the line somewhere, and it typically does by tackling those matters with a direct impact on the practice of journalism.

But there are controversies -- and a story published Sept. 16 in the Los Angeles Times outlines one of them -- that deserve some sort of reaction from one the nation's largest and oldest journalism advocacy organizations. SPJ does, after all, champion free speech. And despite what we've all heard about "the liberal media," journalists are some of the staunchest believers I know in the establishment of religion and the free exercise thereof.

So, let's just say I'm not the only working stiff in a newsroom who has spotted parallels between the legal fights the federal government has picked with journalists -- and the mess now raining down on an Episcopal church in Pasadena, Calif. Wonder of wonders! The liberal media might have something in common with the religously devout after all. (OK, OK. So in this case, the parish is well known for its liberal stance on various biblical issues.)

Some quick background: All Saints Episcopal Church has until Sept. 29 to submit to the IRS all documents and e-mails it produced during the 2004 election year with references to political candidates.

What triggered the investigation now threatening the church's tax-exempt status? A minister who had the gall to say during a 2004 sermon -- delivered only a couple of days before the presidential election -- that Jesus would have had serious problems with the Bush administration's preemptive war strategy in Iraq and its efforts to address poverty around the world and right here at home.

The church's 3,500 members are debating whether to comply with the IRS summons, which, the church states in a press release, probes "deeply into its core religious practices." Hmmm. Sounds a whole lot like those overzealous federal probes that have increasingly struck at the heart of journalistic practices.

The government has thumbed its nose at us all in recent months: "Information you hold sacred, believing it is protected from public scrutiny because of your First Amendment rights? Get outta here! We're the only ones entitled to keep secrets!"

I'm praying the feds have finally picked on the wrong crowd -- a crowd that will do an even better job than news organizations (and, yes, even SPJ) have done of making the public aware of how the First Amendment is going to hell in a handbasket.

I'm also watching with great curiosity as a church gets a crash course in what it's like to be a journalist these days.

God does indeed move in mysterious ways.