In violation of IRS regulations, Carlsbad church donated $1,900 to school board candidates and urged followers to do the same – San Diego Union-Tribune

A Carlsbad church has asked for the return of two $950 donations made several weeks ago to each of two school board candidates, despite federal regulations that prohibit tax-exempt organizations such as churches from financially supporting or speaking on behalf of any office candidates. public.

Missionary Church Pastor David Menard also urged his congregation during a sermon last month to donate to two Carlsbad Unified candidates, Jen Belnap and Laura Siaosi.

When the San Diego Union-Tribune asked about the donations under Internal Revenue Service tax-exempt rules, Menard wrote in an email Thursday that they were made in error and that the church had asked for them back.

“To support our community, we recently joined the campaigns of two school board candidates in Carlsbad. After doing this, we realized that we had deviated from the IRS’s 501(c)(3) guidance,” he said.

On Friday, Belnap said in an email that she learned on Thursday that the donation to the church was illegal and that its treasurer subsequently returned it. Siaosi stated that the donation to the church was a “nice gesture of support”, but she too returned it as soon as she learned it was inappropriate.

Missionary Church, registered as a tax-exempt organization under Art. 501(c)(3) under the name Ezra Ministries, donated $1,900 on Oct. 15, county campaign finance records show.

IRS rules claim that tax-exempt organizations, including churches and religious nonprofits, are “completely prohibited” from donating to political campaigns or publicly expressing support for them.

The IRS adds that any financial contributions or oral or written public statements of position to any candidate for public office “clearly violate the prohibition on political campaigning.”

When asked why the church donated to Belnap and Siaosi, Menard wrote, “The missionary church loves our city and our schools.”

Menard has already explained in detail his support for Belnap and Siaosi.

In Sermon of October 13he unveiled a plan for his church to wrest a majority of the five-member school board from candidates backed by the teachers’ union. The new board will soon need to hire a new superintendent to replace Benjamin Churchill, who’s leaving in December for Poway Unified.

The church already has the endorsement of one board member, Gretchen Vurbeff, Menard said, so adding two more would mean a majority endorsed by the church.

He called the LGBTQ community the “opposition” and suggested it was responsible for putting the current union-backed majority on the board.

“The opposition, the LGBTQ community, discovered long before us how important it was to have the right people on the school board,” Menard said.

He told his congregation it was important to restore the “right values” to schools.

“We must focus on truth and on getting our children back into science, math and core subjects, not bombarding them with life-destroying ideologies,” Menard said.

Menard also urged his congregation to donate to and vote for Belnap and Siaosi’s campaigns.

“I would like to ask you to support them, both with your votes and financially,” he said. He added that the Mission Church financially supports Belnap and Siaosi “on the periphery.”

Belnap and Siaosi also spoke during the sermon. Belnap, a Carlsbad High School parent, said she was running to prevent the board from having four or five trustees backed by the teachers union.

“I am running to ensure that there are diverse perspectives on this committee,” she said. “I am also running for us to respect and honor the sacred role of the family and the family unit in our community.”

Siaosi, who is also a Carlsbad High School parent and whose husband is a volunteer coach, likened her race for school board to a battle of good versus evil.

“I never really thought about being politically active, but we are reaching a time where for evil to triumph, all it takes is for good men and women to stand by and do nothing, and I can’t do anything,” she said.

Mission Church, founded by Menard in 2011, made headlines last year mobilized opposition to the school district’s diversity, equity and inclusion plan, which was developed under Churchill’s direction. The board ultimately approved the plan.

Belnap and Siaosi’s opponents, Ejehan Turker and Alison Emery, said they were surprised to learn they both received donations from the church.

Turker, the mother speaking against Siaosi, said she believed the fact that Siaosi and Belnap chose to accept the donations was unethical and indicative of how they would serve on the school board.

“If elected to office, how far will they go to advance their own political agendas?” – Turker said.

Siaosi stated that her critics used church donations “to continue their merciless attack on my character.”

“What is truly disturbing is that the same people who are supposedly fighting for diversity, equity and inclusion here in Carlsbad see no hypocrisy in their attacks on people of faith,” she said.

Turker and Emery have stated that if elected, they intend to be a “stabilizing presence” on the board to prevent groups from creating “chaos” at school board meetings to promote their own political “ideologies.”

They said they are concerned about Missionary Church’s involvement in their opponents’ campaigns because they see the church trying to promote a religious agenda in public schools and “sow division” in the district. They stated that schools must ensure that all students feel safe, supported and integrated, and in their opinion the Church’s goals conflict with this.

“I just want to calm the chaos, soften the tone and rhetoric, restore educational philosophies and best teaching practices,” said Emery, a Carlsbad parent and Solana Beach teacher who is also on the Solana Beach Teachers Union bargaining team.

Both Turker and Emery have the support of the Carlsbad teachers union.

Originally published: November 2, 2024 at 5:00 a.m. PDT