Sheldon, house allies promote new church politicking measure. (People & Events).

The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, a California minister best known for his strident opposition to homosexuality, is promoting legislation in Congress that would allow houses of worship to engage in partisan politics.

Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), is working with Rep. Phil Crane (R-Ill.) to secure passage of the "Bright-Line Act of 2001" (H.R. 2931). The bill would allow churches to devote 20 percent of their resources to lobbying and 5 percent toward endorsements of political candidates.

Current law allows houses of worship and other non-profit groups that hold 501(c)(3) status to devote 5 percent of their resources toward lobbying and flatly forbids them from endorsing or opposing candidates for office. Religious Right groups have been complaining about the rules and want to change them.

Crane's measure is one of two pending in Congress that would lift the Internal Revenue Service's ban on political endorsements by non-profit groups. (The other is Rep. Walter Jones' "Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act, H.R. 2357.)

Crane's bill is not currently moving in the House, but it has won support from two powerful Republicans -- Majority Leader Dick Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay, both of Texas.

Sheldon, an ultra-conservative Presbyterian minister, was recently the subject of a fawning profile in the Pentecostal magazine Charisma. He told the journal he'd like to be remembered for destroying the "big lie" of church-state separation.

"There is no separation of church and state," Sheldon said. "There always has been, and always will be, a role for Christianity and the gospel in American public policy."

Although the Charisma article portrayed Sheldon as a major player in Washington, D.C., he is in fact so extreme that many political leaders are careful to keep him at arm's length. Nonetheless, he has some friends in high places.

In a TVC membership recruitment letter earlier this year, U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) called Sheldon "a wonderful person" and "among my dearest friends." Watts, who as Republican Conference Chair is the fourth ranking GOP official in the House, urged recipients to "please support TVC by sending whatever donation of support you can today."

More recently, Sheldon launched another one of the anti-gay diatribes for which he is best known. On Oct. 4, he asserted that private and public agencies giving relief aid to survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks should not help gays.

Sheldon's statement was sparked after he read news reports noting that some gay people whose partners had been killed in the attacks were receiving assistance.