Uh-oh:

A June 23 appearance by Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama at the General Synod of the United Church of Christ is now the subject of a formal complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service on August 2.

Portions of the redacted documents obtained by the website UCC Truths, a growing online gathering for dissenters from the church leadership's rigid left-wing political orthodoxy, were published August 27. Those redacted documents have now been obtained by The American Spectator.

The complaint, addressed to Lois Lerner, the Director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service, formally asks the IRS to "investigate the United Church of Christ," identified in the complaint as "a 501 (3) (c) non-profit religious entity" for violating "federal tax law banning political campaign intervention." The redaction has blacked out the name of the filer.

The complaint alleges the UCC "violated every single point outlined in the IRS guidelines," in sponsoring the Illinois Senator's appearance at the church's bi-annual national gathering, which this year was held in the Hartford Civic Center in the Connecticut capital. It charges:

• "The United Church of Christ selectively provided the convention facilities for Sen. Obama to speak in support of his campaign."
• "The United Church of Christ and Sen. Obama referenced his candidacy before and during the speech."
• "Clear and deliberate campaign activity occurred in connection with the [sic] Sen. Obama's attendance and speech."

I'm pretty confident that the complaint won't hold up, and the blog post quoted above is nothing more than petty vindictiveness and baloney.

But still. Just after Obama's speech, I read a thread over at the AU site where Barry Lynn opined that the appearance was kosher, though Lynn did express some reservations.

I didn't write it up at the time, but I did think Lynn was correct. There was no foul, but anyone who thought that having a single presidential candidate come to speak at a denominational convention wasn't going to draw some fire had to be smoking the wacky tobacky. There are plenty of people out there who'd like to take a slice out of the ass of Obama, Lynn, or the UCC. This was perfectly predictable.

Update: Nuts. This is the part where I explain that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. There's just no way to win on this one, is there?