![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/85\/2013\/05\/408417_10151659516472442_1004082007_n.jpg\" "\\"Stand_with_Billy_Graham\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nAs the hours click off the clock, more and more folks are coming out of their caves to complain about how their recent IRS audits<\/a> are a little too well timed to be just coincidental.<\/p>\n Today, Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, and the head of the ministry his father started, has written a letter to President Obama crying foul.<\/p>\n Last April, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, headquartered in North\u00a0Carolina, ran full-page ads statewide supporting the Marriage Amendment in North\u00a0Carolina. We believe marriage between a man and a woman to be a moral, biblical\u00a0value to be upheld. And last fall, our ministry ran newspaper ads nationally encouraging\u00a0voters to \u201ccast our ballots for candidates who base their decisions on biblical principles\u00a0and support the nation of Israel.\u201d The ad concluded with these words: \u201cVote for biblical\u00a0values this November 6, and pray with me (Billy Graham) that America will remain one\u00a0nation under God.\u201d (These ads were purchased with designated funds given by friends\u00a0of our ministry for this purpose.)<\/p>\n To my surprise, on September 6, 2012, both Samaritan\u2019s Purse (headquartered\u00a0in Boone, NC) and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (headquartered in\u00a0Charlotte, NC) received notification from the IRS that a review would be conducted for\u00a0tax year ending 2010. An IRS agent arrived October 15, 2012, to conduct a review of\u00a0Samaritan\u2019s Purse; and an agent arrived on October 29, 2012, to conduct a review of\u00a0the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.<\/p>\n In light of what the IRS admitted to on Friday, May 10, 2013, and subsequent\u00a0revelations from other sources, I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two\u00a0organizations last year is a coincidence\u2013or justifiable.<\/p>\n Read the entire letter at CNN<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Keeping in mind that the IRS is the collector, and enforcer of, fees and fines related to the Affordable Care Act, I\u2019m starting to wonder. I wonder if the HHS Mandate, crafted as it is to harm Catholics specifically (and other Christian groups opposed to being forced to provide birth control, sterilization, and abortion services), is a carefully targeted plan not only to strip the Church of her First Amendment rights<\/a>, but to further attempt to destroy her (and her flock) through crippling fines imposed by the IRS.<\/p>\n Given all of the stories of IRS malfeasance coming to light recently, I don\u2019t think the idea is as far-fetched as it once was. Below you\u2019ll find \u00a0the video of tonight\u2019s impromptu news conference where the President announces the firings of certain IRS officials.<\/p>\n