Maine Marriage Equality group uses IRS against Churches

Christian churches in Maine whose leaders encouraged support for a referendum that repealed a law allowing same-sex marriage are being targeted in an intimidation campaign urging homosexuals to file complaints against them with the Internal Revenue Service.

A "Maine Marriage Equality" website that lobbied for the same-sex marriage measure is asking its followers to file the complaints.

"You are probably already aware of churches that supported and actively promoted a 'YES' vote on Question 1. Please take the time to file an IRS complaint against them. Examples of supportingdocumentation to include with your complaint are pamphlets or other material created and/or distributed by the church or religious organization, photographs that show attempts to influence legislation (see below), witness statements or recordings of individuals who were aware of the campaign activities, and any other evidence that may prove a church or religious organization attempted to influence the public to vote 'YES' on Question 1.

With your help, we can reaffirm our Constitutional Separation of Church and State and ensure that in the future, nobody's civil rights are stripped away by religious fanatics attempting to force their religion on all of us."

The campaign was launched after a decision by Maine voters, by a 53 percent to 47 percent margin, to restore the definition of marriage to only one man and one woman. State lawmakers had expanded it to include same-sex duos, but voters made Maine the 31st state out of 31 to limit marriage to one man and one woman.

A defense for any churches or church leaders targeted by the complaints, however, already is being assembled.