WHEREAS, The Internal Revenue Service on January 4, 1977, issued rules amending #1.6033-2 of the Income Tax Regulations in order to define an “integrated auxiliary” of a church, convention, or association of church, and
WHEREAS, In so doing the Federal Government has attempted in part to define the mission and role of a church and has assumed for itself the function of determining that which is not an agency integral to the religious mission of the church, and
WHEREAS, The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States forbids government from making any laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and
WHEREAS, The Supreme Court of the United States has held in numerous cases that government may neither aid nor inhibit religion and may not become excessively entangled with religion ,and
WHEREAS, The amendments to #1.6033-2 of the Income Tax Regulations have a chilling effect on religion, serve to inhibit religion, and lead to excessive government entanglement with religion.
Be it therefore RESOLVED, That the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in its 1977 annual session in Kansas City, Missouri, express its concern over this violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of separation of church and state, and
Be it further RESOLVED, That it finds the amendments to #1.6033-2 of the Income Tax Regulations defining an “integrated auxiliary” to be unacceptable both scripturally and legally, and
That it request the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs to make this Convention’s opposition known to the President, the Commission of Internal Revenue, the Congress, and, as appropriate, the judiciary.