Evangelist defends right to criticize Romney campaign
TAMPA -- A Florida evangelist shrugged off allegations yesterday that he is illegally mixing religion and politics by telling followers that a vote for Mormon presidential candidate Mitt Romney "is a vote for Satan."
A watchdog group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, hand-delivered a letter to the Internal Revenue Service last week asking for an investigation of St. Petersburg-based evangelist Bill Keller, who has used his online columns and late-night TV show to assert that Romney is not a Christian because he belongs to the Mormon Church.
The group says Keller's anti-Romney rants violate federal tax law, and it wants the IRS to look into revoking the tax-exempt status of his nonprofit ministry. The law prohibits tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing candidates....