Civil Rights Leaders Call on IRS to Revoke Tax Exemption for Kentucky Church that Bans Interracial Couples

Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable

December 1, 2011
for Immediate Release
Contact: Earl Ofari Hutchinson
323-383-6145

Press Advisory:

Civil Rights Leaders Call on IRS to Revoke Tax Exemption for Kentucky Church that Bans Interracial Couples

 Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson and other civil rights leaders on Thursday, December 1 called on the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the tax exemption for the Gulnare Free Will Baptist church in Pike County, Kentucky. The church formally voted to bar interracial couples. This clearly violates the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1983 in the case of Bob Jones University that the IRS can deny tax exemption to any organization including religious institutions that sanction racial discrimination. The ruling firmly established that churches have no legal right to discriminate at taxpayer expense. The revocation of the church’s tax exemption will be a powerful reminder to religious institutions that discrimination will not be paid for by the taxpayers.

“The Gulnare Free Will Baptist churches action barring interracial couples is a shameful and disgraceful insult to the nation, “says Hutchinson,” “By revoking the tax exempt status of this church, the IRS and the nation will send a strong message that bigotry in any form will not be tolerated by the taxpayers, especially bigotry in the name of God and religion.”