Experts: St. Mark’s Violated Tax Law with Election Sign

In the runup to the November election, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Ferndale violated federal rules prohibiting nonprofit entities from engaging in electioneering activities in favor or opposition to any candidate for public office, a pair of experts tell The Journal.

St. Mark’s pastor Tyrel Bramwell’s election-related conduct began raising questions among some Ferndale residents in October, when he put up a Trump campaign sign on the lawn outside his personal residence, which is owned by the church, posted a video to his YouTube channel urging people not to vote for a Ferndale City Council candidate he labeled an “idiot” (though he insisted he wasn’t using the term in a pejorative sense) and St. Mark’s changed its marquee to urge people to vote against Proposition 3, which, passed by 63 percent of voters, enshrined marriage equality in the state Constitution.

Experts, however, say none of these things violated tax code language prohibiting nonprofits with tax-exempt status from engaging in certain campaign activity.
While the Trump sign was technically on church-owned property, they said it was a political statement made by Bramwell as an individual, unlikely to be broadly seen as a message from the church itself. Similarly, that YouTube video was posted on Bramwell’s personal channel, they said, and he has the right to share his views on elections when not speaking on behalf of the church. The marquee message about Proposition 3, meanwhile, is fair game because the law allows tax-exempt nonprofits to take stands on propositions and ballot measures.

The Journal emailed Bramwell questions about St. Mark’s nonprofit status and his view of what’s permissible under the tax code and he did not respond, explaining in a subsequent video posted to his YouTube account that the paper was “on a fishing expedition.” The video then went on to explain the tax code’s prohibitions on electioneering and why Bramwell felt he hadn’t violated them, noting that the church didn’t pay for the Trump sign or put it up, and that his YouTubing is a personal pursuit.

“The church’s official publications do not support or denounce any candidate, locally or nationally,” he said.

But then, in the runup to the election, the church’s marquee did just that, with the message: “THE DEMOCRATS PROUDLY DEFY GOD’s WORD. DON’T VOTE FOR EVIL!” A picture of the marquee was then shared on one of the church’s social media accounts.

“This is a clear, intentional violation of the tax code that the IRS should investigate and revoke the church’s tax exemption,” said Ian Smith, staff attorney for the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

Matthew Wilson, director of the Center for Learning and Faith at Southern Methodist University whose research focuses on elections and the role of religion in politics, agreed, saying the sign “pretty clearly violates the relevant electioneering prohibitions.”

“It is a statement explicitly referencing a political party, urging a specifically political act, made from the church’s public-facing sign,” Wilson wrote in an email to The Enterprise. “Any reasonable observer would see this as partisan voter guidance on behalf of the church, which is prohibited under tax law for nonprofits.”

But while Smith said the sign should warrant an IRS investigation and revocation of St. Mark’s nonprofit status, Wilson said the church is “highly unlikely” to face any consequences.

“The federal government is generally reluctant to pursue these kinds of cases, and the chances of them doing so under a Trump administration are virtually zero,” Wilson said.

Editor’s note: This story was first published in the Dec. 12 edition of The Ferndale Enterprise.

This article appears in Sculpting Community.