SACRAMENTO ? A liberal church that has been threatened with the loss of its tax-exempt status over an anti-war sermon delivered just days before the 2004 presidential election said Thursday it will fight an IRS order to turn over documents on the matter.

“We’re going to put it in their court and in a court of law so that we can get an adjudication to some very fundamental issue here that we see as an intolerable infringement of rights,” Bob Long, senior warden of All Saints Church, told The Associated Press.

He said the church’s 26-member vestry voted unanimously to resist IRS demands for documents and an interview with the congregation’s rector by the end of the month.

The church’s action sets up a high-profile confrontation between the church and the IRS, which now must decide whether to ask for a hearing before a judge, who would then decide on the validity of the agency’s demands.