An anti-abortion sign and related demonstrations outside the Rock Christian Fellowship on Riverside Drive in Española have led to one complaint to the Internal Revenue Service and one to the Española Police Department.
The sign in question got the attention of a Washington, D.C.-based group called Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Executive Director Barry Lynn wrote a letter to the IRS Oct. 22 alleging the Rock violated IRS rules regarding tax-exempt organizations. His letter describes the sign and references the IRS code that states: “Organizations must avoid any issue advocacy that functions as political campaign intervention.”
“Even if a statement does not expressly tell an audience to vote for or against a specific candidate, an organization delivering the statement is at risk of violating the political campaign intervention prohibition if there is any message favoring or opposing a candidate,” it states.
Lynn claims the sign constitutes “unlawful political involvement,” saying Pastor Michael Naranjo is openly trying to influence the election and calling on the IRS to investigate the matter. The IRS could revoke the Rock’s tax-exempt status if it found the church to be in violation.
Naranjo said the sign is within the law, as it is issue-focused and simply illustrates the reality of the pro-choice position. Calls to Americans United were not returned. IRS officials refused to comment on the matter.
Naranjo stood behind his decision to put a picture of a presumably aborted fetus on the facade of the church, saying the public needs to see it to realize what abortion really entails. Below the picture are the names of Democratic candidates for federal office, who Naranjo says are wrong on the abortion issue. A picture of a happy-looking infant sits above the Republican candidates’ names in a stark illustration of how Naranjo thinks people should vote Nov. 4.
Orlando Casados helps run JoAnn’s Restaurant, which is located directly across the street from the Rock. He said families with small children are hesitant to eat there because of the sign, as well as similar ones demonstrators hold when they regularly gather in the Rock’s parking lot.
“I’ve lost a lot of business at the restaurant,” Casados said. “They think it’s kinda disgusting.”
The afternoon of Oct. 21, some demonstrators crossed the street to stand directly in front of JoAnn’s, where a sign supporting Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was erected with the Casados’ permission.
“Those guys from next door were over on our property with the same big four-by-six pictures of the babies,” Casados said. “They were jumping on mom’s flowers and stuff.”
Casados said he respects the Rock’s right to display the pictures on its own property, even if he disagrees with it. He said the demonstrators wouldn’t go back across the street when he asked, so he called the police to intervene. The demonstrators said it was their right to be there and wouldn’t leave at first.
“They got pretty vulgar,” he said of the demonstrators. “They argued with the police, they argued with me.”
The demonstrators eventually left the property, and no arrests were made.
Republican Cecilia Martinez-Salazar witnessed the incident. She said she didn’t think it was fair for the police to tell the demonstrators to leave.
“Does she own the street?” she asked about restaurant owner JoAnn Casados. “Does she own the sidewalk?”
In her view Democrats get more leeway with city officials, and in this case, the police.
“Why they got involved, I don’t know,” she said. “(Democrats) can put their signs anywhere they want, and nobody questions them or calls them on it.”
“We didn’t even look at this as a political issue,” Española Public Safety Chief Julian Gonzales said.
Gonzales said the demonstrators were impeding traffic on Riverside Drive and bothering the JoAnn’s patrons by standing in the restaurant’s parking lot with pictures and signs.
Casados said he thought the police were fair.
“Do we have any say in that picture that they’ve got?” he asked. “I didn’t cross the street and bother them.”