AP writer Henry C. Jackson reports (2.25.2008) on Sen. Charles Grassley’s (R-IA) investigation of several churches and televangelists:
“They’re non-profits, like anybody else I looked into,” said Grassley, the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee. “I’ve sent them some letters because I want some information. If they want to cooperate that’s good, I expect they will. If they don’t, they’ll be the first people since a fellow named Abramoff, and he’s in a jail cell.” . . .
“Senator Grassley’s request clearly disregards the privacy protections of the church under law and appears to cross the line of constitutional guarantees for churches,” one of the ministries under scrutiny, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, said in a statement.
And Gary McCaleb, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, a religious liberty legal group, criticized the tone of Grassley’s inquiry.
“From the get-go he’s acted more like an investigator and not at all like a senator on this and that’s unnerving. He has a right to get facts, but this has looked, felt and smelled like an enforcement action,” McCaleb said.
Grassley seems bemused by the outcry . . . Despite the angry reply from some of the ministries, Grassley hasn’t seemed to pay a price in Iowa, where evangelicals are an important part of the state Republican Party.
