IE Megachurch Pastor Under Fire, Will The IRS Even Care?

CHINO, CA — An Inland Empire megachurch pastor is accused by watchdog organizations of using his pulpit to endorse U.S. Senate candidate Steve Garvey. If true, the clergyman violated federal law and could forfeit his church's tax-exempt status.

History shows, that probably won't happen.

Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills is accused by Freedom From Religion Foundation and Right Wing Watch of endorsing Garvey during a Feb. 25 sermon. The groups released video purporting to show Hibbs endorsing the Republican candidate during Sunday's sermon.

"I want to publicly right now, today, encourage all of you to vote for Steve Garvey. You gotta vote for Steve Garvey," Hibbs said from the pulpit, according to a video clip shared on X by Right Wing Watch. "It’s against the law for me to, I just remembered it’s against the law for me to say that in the pulpit so … "

In the video, Hibbs stepped out from behind the pulpit but remained on stage inside the 2,500-seat CCCH auditorium. He continued:

"As a public citizen, Steve Garvey is not only one of the greatest baseball players of all time, but we want Steve Garvey to represent us in the Senate, and so Steve Garvey is your only, is the only guy on the ballot. Um, so there, that was legal. I just had to move from here to there."

Patch could not independently verify the video's authenticity, and has repeatedly reached out to Hibbs' for comment. He has not responded.

According to the Internal Revenue Service's website, federal law "prohibits political campaign activity by charities and churches by defining a 501(c)(3) organization as one 'which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.'"

Freedom From Religion Foundation announced Wednesday it contacted the IRS about "continued electioneering by Christian hate preacher Jack Hibbs at the Calvary Chapel Chino Hills church in California."

In the Feb. 27 letter to the federal agency, the group urged the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills church "so long as Hibbs uses his position to spread his political views."

Right Wing Watch shared on X that Hibbs' alleged church campaigning is "a clear violation of the law, and we will be asking the IRS to ensure that Pastor Hibbs' church no longer receives the benefits of 501(c)(3) status and that donations made to his church are no longer treated as tax deductible."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation and Right Wing Media claim the Feb. 25 sermon was live-streamed and included the Garvey endorsement by Hibbs, but those political remarks were not included in the video version uploaded to YouTube showing a packed CCCH auditorium.

The church boasts a large following. Since completing construction in 2000 of CCCH's building at 4201 Eucalyptus Avenue, the church has "over ten thousand adults in attendance on Sundays not including children," according to the CCCH website.

In addition to CCCH, Hibbs operates Real Life Network and a JackHibbs.com website that sells merchandise. Websites for all of Hibbs' organizations accept donations. Financial statements were unavailable online, so it's unclear what the organizations' or Hibbs' financial positions are.

Last year, the Chino City Council approved a $108,700 sidewalk project funded by Calvary Chapel Chino Hills Foundation. Financial reports for the foundation were unavailable online.

In an emailed statement to Patch, the IRS reported it could not answer whether it was investigating Hibbs or his organizations, or whether any complaints were received.

"Federal law prevents the IRS from confirming or denying correspondence [with a] taxpayer or a case," according to the email.

Robert Tyler, president and general counsel at Advocates for Faith and Freedom, told Patch that throughout the 70-year IRS ban on political campaigning by nonprofits, it's extremely rare for an organization to be stripped of its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

The ban, known as the Johnson Amendment, "is an unconstitutional violation of free speech," Tyler said.

If the IRS tries to revoke a church's status over political campaigning, the case would likely go to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Tyler.

Named after former president Lyndon Johnson, the ban was championed by the Democratic leader during his tenure as U.S. Senator. The amendment received bipartisan support and was signed into law in 1954 by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request in 2021 from ProPublica and the Texas Tribune, "the IRS produced a severely redacted spreadsheet indicating the agency had launched inquiries into 16 churches since 2011. IRS officials shielded the results of the probes, and they have declined to answer specific questions," according to an investigation by the news outlets published in 2022.

The IRS might not react to the complaint about Hibbs, but he has caught the ire of some serving in a branch of the federal government: the U.S. House of Representatives. In a Feb. 15 letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, 26 congressional members expressed concerns about the speaker's sponsorship of Hibbs as a recent guest chaplain.

"Pastor Hibbs is a radical Christian Nationalist who helped fuel the January 6th insurrection and has a long record of spewing hateful vitriol toward non-Christians, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community. He should never have been granted the right to deliver the House’s opening prayer on January 30, 2024," according to the letter.

Among other concerns, the letter states Hibbs' "intolerance" for non-Christians is "breathtaking."

"He preaches that Christians are at 'war' against the 'death cult' of Islam, which he calls a 'vehicle' for Satan in the Last Days," the letter reads. "He criticizes Christians who seek interfaith dialogue with Muslims based on the common Abrahamic origins of the two religions as falling for 'a demonic doctrine being propagated by heretics.'"

The letter also condemns Hibbs' alleged comments on Jewish people who follow their faith.

"At a time of rising antisemitism, Hibbs also disparages Jews as being in a 'stupor' and a 'Godgiven blindness,' unlike the 'true Jews' who worship Jesus because 'they didn’t get bogged down in Judaism, which…cannot save you,'" the letter quotes.

Tyler said his nonprofit law firm is working to determine whether the letter constitutes defamation. Of particular concern is the characterization of Hibbs as a "Christian Nationalist" and that he was involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Tyler asserts Christian Nationalism applies to people who prioritize "politically conservative views over Biblically based views."

"I have known Jack a long time. He is not a Christian Nationalist. That is not who Jack is. I don't believe he was even in Washington during the attack," said Tyler, who has previously counseled Hibbs.

The letter, Tyler continued, contains "salacious allegations" that attempt to denounce Hibbs because he doesn't align with signers' Democratic politics.

During the Feb. 25 sermon by Hibbs', he railed against the letter for about 5 minutes, saying it crucified himself and the speaker. Hibbs told his congregation he was "probably going to be investigated by the IRS. For the record, I owe no taxes. I pay all my taxes. I've never been late on my taxes."

Laughing and clapping was the congregation's response.

Detracters say Hibbs uses insidious messaging common in right-wing factions. For example, during the Feb. 25 sermon, he referred to the LGBTQ community as "LGBTQLMNOP" and got laughs. In a podcast, he told listeners the education system is "mentally molesting children in school" with "pornographic" books to prepare them for "rape" in later life.

Some argue former President Donald Trump’s opposition to the ban on political activity by nonprofits "has given some politically-minded evangelical leaders a sense that the Johnson Amendment just isn’t really an issue anymore, and that they can go ahead and campaign for or against candidates or positions from the pulpit,” David Brockman, a scholar in religion and public policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, was quoted in an article by the Texas Tribune-Propublica Investigative Unit.

Trump tried to overturn the Johnson Amendment during his presidency but was unsuccessful.

In the Texas Tribune-Propublica report, Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, who studies Christian Nationalism, said the ramping up of political activity by churches could further polarize the country.

"It creates hurdles for a healthy, functioning, pluralistic democratic society," Whitehead's quote read. "It’s really hard to overcome."

Politics inside churches is not new, Tyler said. He pointed to church appearances by Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton during their years in the White House.

"It happens on both sides," he said.