IRS harassment of Catholics nothing new, even Catholic Online targeted

The Obama administration's IRS thuggery hasn't just been limited to tea party and conservative groups. Prominent Catholics, including Catholic Online, have been targeted for IRS harassment over the past several years.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - In an article offered to The Blaze, Doctor Anne Hendershott detailed the harassment she endured from the IRS in 2010. What makes her case so upsetting is that she wasn't a business or nonprofit entity.

Dr. Hendershott told The Blaze she believes she may have been targeted because of her Catholic beliefs.

Dr. Hendershott is a well-respected professor and sociologist who writes and comments on Catholic issues. In 2010, and thereafter, she came out in opposition to Obamacare. She criticized liberal Catholic groups and President Obama, an act which she believes provoked an IRS audit.

During her audit, the IRS demanded to know who was financing her work, and "what their politics were."

Dr. Hendershott was floored. She explained that she was just a writer, a blogger really. She did not make any money from her work, in fact she estimates that she has lost money if anything.

Despite this, the IRS insisted she was running a business and treated her as such. Dr. Hendershott does not have a business, and files jointly with her husband who actually brings in the majority of their household income.

The IRS was not interested in her husband. Instead, they insisted she meet with them in private and provide in exacting detail an account of where every dollar that went into her bank account came from.

Dr. Hendershott believes the audit was sparked following a contentious radio interview in which she criticized Obama's policies and George Soros' funding of liberal Catholic organizations.

If her suspicions are correct, they suggest that the IRS has been promoting a leftist political agenda at least since 2010, and has been using its power to audit as an illegal form of coercion to chill freedom of expression.

Catholic Online has first-hand experience of IRS harassment. Even before 2010, Catholic Online became the target of an IRS investigation. Numerous allegations were made against the organization by individuals in positions of power and authority who have personal problems with Catholics.

The investigation was similarly intrusive and likely designed to intimidate Catholic Online.

Catholic Online was soon cleared of any wrongdoing. The organization always has and continues to operate with a high standard of moral integrity in all its dealings. However because Catholic Online takes positions that may not be politically popular, particularly with the empowered left, the organization is a target.

What must be understood, is that Catholics across the United States are under siege. Leftist movements, secularists, relativists, atheists, are all working to silence conservative voices from Catholic Online to Dr. Hendershott. This is because Catholics are standing up to fight for religious freedom and to defend the moral foundation of our country.

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Christ explained that his faithful would face trials in persecutions simply for following Him, so there are no surprises here. If anything, we are witnessing a national tragedy as the forces of evil gain ever more power to drown out the voices of good.

Fortunately, as Catholics, we already know how such efforts will end.

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