With the national election still many months away, we are already seeing examples of churches and religious organizations revving up partisan political machines in violation of the federal tax code.

Project Fair Play, which educates religious leaders about the law and pursues violators, has already filed two complaints. One concerns the Bill Keller Ministries attacking Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on its ministry website, telling people that supporting Romney is like voting for Satan. The other involves a Roman Catholic Bishop who used his diocesan newspaper to attack candidate Rudy Giuliani for his stand on abortion.

More recently, a Southern Baptist pastor in California used church resources to endorse GOP hopeful Mike Huckabee as God's Candidate.

As Project Fair Play points out, the First Amendment protects the right of all Americans to speak out on religious, moral and political issues. However, houses of worship and other nonprofit entities classified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service Tax Code are barred from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office and may not intervene directly or indirectly in partisan campaigns.

The IRS recently announced a new plan of heightened scrutiny of non-profit groups and their political activity. The tax agency's "Political Activity Compliance Initiative" promises closer examination of non-profits and swifter actions against violators.

Any activity designed to influence the outcome of a partisan election can be construed as intervention and can result in the revocation of the institution's tax-exempt status or significant fines on the house of worship or its leaders.

A church should be especially wary of so-called "voter guides" which are often thinly veiled partisan materials. If the IRS finds that a violation has occurred, it may be the house of worship, not the organization producing the guide, that is penalized.

The projectfairplay.org website offers detailed information showing what activities are allowed and what constitutes violations. It offers a link to the IRS website, www.irs.gov to read the actual legislation. Basically,

Houses of worship may: " discuss public policy issues, " sponsor non-partisan voter registration and encourage voting as good civic behavior, " sponsor candidate forums as long as all leading candidates are invited and a broad range of issues is discussed, " urge congregants to communicate with candidates and make their concerns known to them.

House of worship may not: " issue statements endorsing or opposing candidates, " donate money to a candidate, " offer church space to one candidate and refuse it to another, " sponsor rallies for candidates in church.

The projectfairplay.org website offers a form for reporting suspected violations, which they will then evaluate and determine if further action is necessary. Since this non-partisan project began in 1996, it has reported church activities in support of Democratic, Republican and Independent campaigns.

The American people oppose politicization of our houses of worship. Survey results released in March 2002 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 70 percent of Americans said churches should not endorse candidates.

Readers are encouraged to educate themselves at the projectfairplay.org website and to be alert in the coming months for violations.