Louisiana Voice

Remember that story LouisianaVoice did when the IRS formally designated the Family Research Council (FRC), headed by Baton Rouge native Tony Perkins as a CHURCH?

Well, apparently there were a few others who didn’t take the news too well. Forty members of Congress have asked the IRS and the Treasury Department to INVESTIGATE “alarming patterns” of right-wing advocacy groups registering as churches.

Churches, of course, are prohibited from engaging in partisan politics at the risk of losing their tax-exempt status.

That’s the theory, at least.

While FRC was already a non-profit and exempt from federal income taxes, the designation has the added advantage of further shielding such groups from other financial reporting requirements and allows them to more easily avoid audits.

Of course, the 40 members of Congress demanding an investigation are all Democrats. No Repugnantcan would be so crass as to suggest an investigation of such a staunch advocate of a church-state merger as FRC.

Perkins, a former Louisiana state legislator who has parlayed his obsession with gays into a national position as president of FRC, never passes up an opportunity to take a shot at the LGBQT community, even going so far as to say that God sends natural disasters to punish them. “God is trying to send us a message” about gay marriage and legalized abortion, he once said.

That was before his own Baton Rouge home was DESTROYED in the 2016 flood that inundated much of South Louisiana.

The flood, which he said was of “Biblical proportions,” was not attributable in his eyes to any LGBQT or abortion issue, however. Instead, he saw the flood as an OPPORTUNITY for Christians to “use this as an incredible, encouraging spiritual exercise to take you to the next level in your walk with an almighty and gracious God who does all things well.”

As one of the thousands of victims of that same flood, I can readily attest that the event was anything but an “opportunity” for those of us who were left homeless by the devastation. At least he had a motor home to house his family on a temporary basis while his home was being repaired. To be sure, that’s more than most had.

Funny, isn’t it, how this sanctimonious man with a direct link to God’s will can see a disaster one way when it affects others but quite differently when it hits closer to home?

In a somewhat related matter, a $100 million replica of NOAH’S ARK was built a few years ago in Kentucky, a state which has been deluged in recent days in its own flood “of Biblical proportions,” resulting in nearly three dozen deaths so far (the search for victims continues as this is being written).

One is given to wonder if operators of the exhibit, the recipient of considerable tax breaks by the State of Kentucky by the way, offered any of those thousands of unfortunate victims an opportunity to ride out the flood – or more important, shelter – when their homes were washed away.

If you happen to believe in karma, Noah’s Ark Encounter SUED ITS INSURANCE CARRIER in 2019 after heavy rains in 2017 and 2018 caused a landslide on an access road to the attraction, causing more than $1 million in damage. The ark was not damaged but apparently the blocked road cost considerable lost revenue in the form of admission fees and T-shirt and coffee mug sales.

While some might see the irony in that, the insurance companies did not but they did eventually settle for an undisclosed amount. Strange that the Bible doesn’t mention any landslides or insurance coverage in its story of Noah’s Ark and the flood.

The Southern Poverty Law Group has designated FRC as an anti-gay extremist hate group, which alone should give the IRS pause in designating the organization as a church.

But there’s more. In 2016, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz appointed Perkins to his unsuccessful Repugnantcan president nomination campaign’s “advisory council for religious liberty.” Following that stint, Perkins played a major role in formulating the Repugnantcan Party platform which included a provision for sending LGBQT people to gay conversion therapy.

If the Family Research Council ever craters, perhaps there’s a job waiting for Perkins at the WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH.