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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pastor reacts to IRS reversal on political candidate endorsement
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Internal Revenue Service is proposing to give churches a greater role in politics, allowing them to endorse or speak against political candidates. It is a shift in the interpretation of the 71-year-old Johnson Amendment to the U.S. tax code, meant to take tax-exempt status away from non-profits that participate in political campaigns. Pastors who endorse political candidates shouldn't lose tax-exempt status, IRS says in filing On July 7, a joint motion from the IRS, two Texas churches, and a Christian broadcasters association asked a federal judge to approve a revised interpretation of the amendment. Their interpretation states: 'When a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith in connection with religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither 'participate[s]' nor 'intervene[s]' in a 'political campaign.'' Constitutional law expert and Dean Emeritus of the William H. Bowen School of Law in Little Rock, John DiPippa, stated the revised interpretation would not change a great deal because the Johnson Amendment was rarely enforced. Only one church ever lost its tax-exempt status under the amendment. In 1992, a New York Church bought an advertisement in national newspapers telling Christians to beware of presidential candidate Bill Clinton. Senate passes Trump's big tax and spending cuts bill as Vance breaks a 50-50 tie John DiPippa said this agreement would still allow action to be taken in cases like that, but he thinks a future challenge by a church or other non-profit could repeal the law entirely. 'At the time of the Johnson Amendment and even as late as the 90's there was thought that groups like corporations or non-profit corporations didn't have the same full First Amendment speech rights that individuals had. Well, that's changed over the years,' DiPippa said. Little Rock's Pinnacle Church of Christ Minister John Phillips said there is a danger to the division that politics bring to churches, and that he would not be changing how he preaches with this ruling. 'You really don't want to get in a situation where you're endorsing or picking a particular candidate,' Phillips said. 'It's issue-driven, and we would want to inform and teach our congregants that they should always study the issues, those things that align themselves with the teachings of scripture. I think we have a responsibility and a right to support that.' Supreme Court allows Trump to resume Education Department layoffs The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops stated after news that 'The Catholic Church maintains its stance of not endorsing or opposing political candidates.' President Trump told voters during his recent campaign that he would get rid of the Johnson Amendment. Still, critics argue that it could create a dark flow of campaign donations because churches, unlike other non-profit organizations, are not required to disclose their donors. DiPippa said repealing the Johnson Amendment entirely would create a 'free-for-all.' 'One of the fears I think is that if we made this open and wide, then churches might tend to skew their messages to the biggest donors, and I think that is a legitimate fear,' he said. A surprise IRS move on political endorsements leaves faith leaders and legal experts divided Phillips stated this has not been an issue in any Church he has attended. 'It really hasn't been a factor over the years,' Phillips said. 'We are not a political action committee. We are not going to make a big donation to any one particular candidate or try to endorse one candidate over another. Again, I think our focus is on looking over the issues.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Independent
08-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Churches can endorse political candidates and keep tax-exempt status, Trump's IRS says
The Internal Revenue Service under Donald Trump's administration will now allow churches and other houses of worship to endorse political candidates from the pulpit without losing their tax-exempt status, upending decades of federal law intended to prevent campaigns from using the pulpit as a political tool. The statements were included in a court filing on Monday night as part of a settlement with two Texas churches and Christian broadcasters, which sought an even wider exemption that would open the door for any nonprofit groups to endorse politicians. Those groups initially filed their lawsuit last year during Joe Biden's administration. At the time, the Department of Justice emphatically rejected claims that tax laws violate churches' First Amendment rights. But under the Trump administration, government lawyers compared campaigning from inside a church to 'a family discussion concerning candidates.' 'Thus, communications from a house of worship to its congregation in connection with religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of faith do not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted,' according to Monday's filing. The Johnson Amendment, introduced by former President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1954 when he was a senator, prohibits tax-exempt charitable organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates in an attempt to prevent those groups from being driven by partisan pressure. Trump wants to get rid of it. The president has long promised his evangelical base that his administration would repeal the Johnson Amendment, which would require an act of Congress or aggressive executive actions that would almost certainly face another wave of legal challenges. Repealing the amendment would allow churches to not only openly endorse candidates but turn them into potential fundraising powerhouses. Churches, unlike other nonprofit groups, are not required to file 990 forms that disclose key financial information to the IRS, allowing them to operate with a lower degree of financial oversight — opening the door for houses of worship to function more like political action committees. 'This court filing is deeply concerning, furthering an assault on the bedrock principle that charitable organizations must remain nonpartisan in law, fact, and purpose in order to serve their missions and communities,' according to Diane Yentel, president of the National Council of Nonprofits, which represents 30,000 groups, 'This action — long sought by President Trump — is not about religion or free speech, but about radically altering campaign finance laws,' she added. 'The decree could open the floodgates for political operatives to funnel money to their preferred candidates while receiving generous tax breaks at the expense of taxpayers who may not share those views.' More than three-quarters of Americans say churches and other houses of worship should not get involved with political endorsements, according to the results of a Pew Research Center survey from 2022. That figure includes a wide majority of worshippers across the ideological spectrum, including 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants, 63 percent of Black protestants, as well as 70 percent of Republican voters and 84 percent of Democratic voters. Nothing in the Johnson Amendment prevents churches and nonprofits from addressing political issues, but the National Religious Broadcasters association, the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, argue that the law forces 'self-censorship' in violation of their First Amendment rights. 'For too long, churches have been instructed to remain silent on pressing matters of conscience and conviction' during election cycles, according to the group's president Troy A. Miller. 'We believe that all nonprofits should have the constitutional right to freely express their point of view on candidates, elections, and issues on the ballot,' he said in a statement announcing the lawsuit last year. 'Our challenge to the Johnson Amendment is about securing the future of free expression for all Americans, particularly those standing in the pulpit.' Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, an advocacy group that supports a firewall between government and worship, called on the IRS to 'enforce the law, not to abandon it.' 'If the lawsuit were to succeed, it would have profound and overwhelmingly negative effects on our political system,' according to the group. 'Neither church nor state would benefit.'
New York Times
08-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
I.R.S. Says Churches Can Endorse Candidates From the Pulpit
The I.R.S. said on Monday that churches and other houses of worship should be allowed to endorse political candidates to their congregations, carving out an exemption in a decades-old ban on political activity by tax-exempt nonprofits. The agency made that statement in a court filing intended to settle a lawsuit filed by two Texas churches and an association of Christian broadcasters. The plaintiffs that sued the I.R.S. had previously asked a federal court in Texas to create an even broader exemption — to rule that all nonprofits, religious and secular, were free to endorse candidates to their members. That would have erased a bedrock idea of American nonprofit law: that tax-exempt groups cannot be used as tools of any campaign. Instead, the I.R.S. agreed to a narrower carveout — one that experts in nonprofit law said might sharply increase politicking in churches, even though it mainly seemed to formalize what already seemed to be the agency's unspoken policy. The agency said that if a house of worship endorsed a candidate to its congregants, the I.R.S. would view that not as campaigning but as a private matter, like 'a family discussion concerning candidates.' 'Thus, communications from a house of worship to its congregation in connection with religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of faith do not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted,' the agency said, in a motion filed jointly with the plaintiffs. The ban on campaigning by nonprofits is named after former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who introduced it as a senator in 1954. President Trump has repeatedly called for its repeal. In the filing, the I.R.S. and the plaintiffs asked a federal judge to enter an order barring the Trump administration — and any that came after it — from enforcing the ban against the groups that sued. Neither the I.R.S. nor a lawyer for the plaintiffs responded to a request for comment on Monday evening. For years, the I.R.S. has seemed deeply leery of punishing religious leaders for political statements made during worship. But the experts said this was the first time that the agency had formally said such statements were not just tolerated but explicitly legal. 'It basically tells churches of all denominations and sects that you're free to support candidates from the pulpit,' said Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who has studied regulation of political activity by churches. 'It also says to all candidates and parties, 'Hey, time to recruit some churches.'' Ellen P. Aprill, a professor emeritus at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said she believed that the I.R.S.'s decision would set off new debates about its limits. What if a church posts endorsements online? Communications meant for congregants could easily reach people unconnected to the church family. 'It's not going to be limited to just their membership,' she said. 'Even Las Vegas doesn't stay in Las Vegas these days. Everybody has a web page.' Seamus Hughes contributed reporting.
