IRS Reverses Decision on Tax-exempt group

IRS repents, now says Bible is not just Republican

GOP group granted tax-exempt status after officials first refused

Officials with the Internal Revenue Service have backtracked on their claims that a Texas organization wasn't qualified for a tax-exempt status because the Christian ideas it pursues are associated with the Republican Party.

The dispute involved a group called Christians Engaged, and Stephen A. Martin, chief of the IRS Exempt Organizations division, at first denied its application for tax-exempt status – which routinely is given to charitable, religious, educational or scientific organizations, because he claimed it "engage[s] in prohibited political campaign intervention" and that it "operate[s] for a substantial non-exempt private purpose and for the private interests of the [Republican] party."

Read more... where several members of Congress instructed the Treasury Department's inspector general to look into the decision when the controversy arose.