1. 1 Tony Semerad, “LGBT Activist Plans Ad Blitz Targeting Mormon Church’s Tax-Exempt Status,” Salt Lake Tribune, January 3, 2017 (updated April 3, 2018), https://www.sltrib.com/news/mormon/2017/01/03/lgbt-activist-plans-ad-blitz-targeting-mormon-churchs-tax-exempt-status/.
2. 2 Lars Nielson, “Letter to an IRS Director,” https://www.scribd.com/document/439385879/Letter-to-an-IRS-Director.
3. 3 For example, in 2017 the Mormon Church’s magazine for teenagers includes a story about potential negative results of the loss of religious liberty. One potential result it highlights is that “[c]hurches could lose their tax-exempt status by maintaining doctrines, policies, and standards that conflict with secular beliefs regarding marriage, family, gender, and sexuality, resulting in a huge increase in costs to build houses of worship or to purchase and provide goods for humanitarian aid.” “Why Religious Freedom Matters: What’s at Risk?,” New Era, June 2017, 17.
4. 4 Samuel D. Brunson, “Reigning in Charities: Using an Intermediate Penalty to Enforce the Campaigning Prohibition,” Pittsburgh Tax Review 8, no. 2 (2011): 125-70.
5. 5 Note that while this article will discuss some of the context surrounding the Mormon Church’s racial policies and ERA and same-sex marriage activism, its focus is not on the church’s actual policies or actions. Rather, it is looking at how the church and its critics have used federal tax-exempt status as a tool in those discussions. This is a critical inquiry as the Mormon Church—and other religious bodies—become more enmeshed in the regulatory state.