Douglas Challenges IRS Threats To Religious Freedom

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, August 4, 2014

Douglas: Internal Revenue Service Has No Right to Threaten Free Speech in Oklahoma Churches
Conservative Patrice Douglas for Congress Will Work to Check Powers of Bureaucracies in Washington

EDMOND, Okla. — Patrice Douglas, a conservative Republican candidate for Congress in Oklahoma’s fifth Congressional district, is speaking out against the recent Internal Revenue Service settlement with the Freedom from Religion Foundation, an atheist group that brought the suit. The settlement forces the tax agency to adopt standard practices for determining and investigating whether churches and religious organizations have violated restrictions on political activity. At the center of the group’s lawsuit is the Johnson Amendment, a hotly debated IRS code that prohibits nonprofit organizations, including tax-exempt churches, from participating in campaign activities.

“Pastors and religious organizations absolutely have the freedom and right to say what they want from the pulpit, without the fear of intimidation by an unchecked bureaucracy, like the IRS,” Douglas said. “In light of the recent scandals at the IRS, it’s disturbing that that they would seek to threaten the tax exempt status of a religious group or church for simply choosing to exercise their Constitutional right to free speech, under the First Amendment. In Congress, I will work to every day to stop the Obama administration and a government bureaucracy, like the IRS, from implementing policies that intimidate, bully and threaten Oklahoma families and small business owners from practicing their Constitutional right to free speech.”

The Republican run-off will occur Tuesday, August 26, 2014. Learn more about Patrice at www.patricedouglas.com.

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