The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the United Church of Christ for possibly violating federal restrictions on political activity for tax-exempt groups after the denomination hosted Sen. Barack Obama as a speaker at its national meeting last year, says the Associated Press.

Senator Obama, who gave a speech to the denomination about faith and public life in Hartford, Conn., after he became a candidate for president, belongs to the 1.2 million-member Protestant group through his Chicago congregation.

The IRS cited articles posted on the church’s Web site stating that volunteers for Senator Obama’s campaign gave out information at tables outside the center. Nonprofit groups are prohibited from endorsing candidates or providing support for campaigns, although groups are allowed to invite candidates to address them.

The Rev. J. Bennett Guess, a spokesman for the denomination, said the group had taken careful steps to avoid any wrongdoing. Church leaders consulted with lawyers before the event. He said a church official announced at the event that the senator’s talk was not a campaign-related event, that Senator Obama’s volunteers were told they could not enter the meeting, and that the denomination had invited Senator Obama to speak a year before he announced his candidacy.

Rev. John H. Thomas, president of the denomination, expressed dismay and disappointment over the investigation. “When the invitation to an elected public official to speak to the national meeting of his own church family is called into question, it has a chilling effect on every religious community,” he said in a statement.

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