Catholic Professor: IRS Asked About Her Anti-Obama Articles

Internal Revenue Service officials showed a particular interest in a prominent Catholic sociologist’s articles critical of President Obama during a 2010 audit. King’s College Professor Anne Hendershott said the IRS audit was the first she had ever experienced, and that the federal tax agency seemed to have no interest in her husband’s income.

“All of the questions focused on who was paying me for the articles,” Hendershott told John Burger, a reporter for the Catholic journal Aleteia. Hendershott said the IRS agent “kept asking me who was paying me: ‘Who paid you to write this one?’ and ‘What did you get paid for that?’”

Hendershott told Aleteia that she was notified of the tax audit “a couple of months after she had written about a connection between [liberal] groups like Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance, the Service Employees International Union and the community organizing group ACORN.” Hendershott had reported that Chris Korzen of Catholics United “was paid $84,900″ by an organization funded by billionaire activist George Soros. Hendershott also wrote “articles critical of Catholics who supported Obamacare for the Wall Street Journal, Catholic World Report, and Catholic Advocate.”

Several religious organizations have complained they were targeted in the IRS scandal that has rocked the Obama administration. An Iowa pro-life group says it was asked about the content of its members’ prayers. A conservative group opposed to same-sex marriage said the IRS leaked confidential information to “political enemies.” Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham, says an IRS audit of his organizations last year was “intimidation.”

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