Impact of Trump’s order uncertain

President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at giving religious leaders more freedom to engage in politics has drawn mixed reviews from some area pastors and civil libertarians.

Trump signed an executive order on religious freedom on Thursday — the National Day of Prayer — and said it will remove the threat that religious groups could lose their tax-exempt status for backing a political candidate. A 1954 law called the Johnson Amendment now prohibits them from endorsing political candidates.

“We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced anymore,” Trump said before signing the order. “We will never ever stand for religious discrimination. Never ever.”

For the Rev. Johnny Amos, with Shiloh Christian Center on the East Side, Trump’s order is good news.

Amos has never endorsed a candidate, but he said if there is someone who matches up with his biblical values in the future, he may ask his congregation to vote for that person.

“It gives the church the true freedom of speech to speak what we believe the (Bible) is saying,” Amos said.

Others fear the order could only cause more division and alienate churchgoers.

“People in the pews don’t get juiced up by pastors week in and week out talking about political issues ... they’re coming to receive inspiration,” said the Rev. Tim Ahrens, of First Congregational Church.

A poll from the Public Religion Research Institute shows that 71 percent of Americans don’t want churches to endorse political candidates.

“The scriptural mandate for me is not to preach about (a politician),” Ahrens said. “It’s to preach about Jesus Christ.”

Ahrens said he does speak out on political issues, as many other religious leaders do, but he

“It gives the church the true freedom of speech to speak what we believe the (Bible) is saying.”

— The Rev. Johnny Amos

thinks the order allowing religious organizations to endorse candidates takes it too far.

The American Civil Liberties Union initially intended to file a lawsuit to fight the order, then realized it doesn’t change anything, said Gary Daniels, chief lobbyist at the ACLU of Ohio.

“The language of the order is rather muddled ... people on all sides of the issue were rather puzzled by the issuance of the executive order,” Daniels said. “I think it would take an act of Congress to change this.”

The text of the order doesn’t specify that leaders can or cannot endorse candidates.

That’s up to the IRS, said John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.

The executive order asks the secretary of the treasury not to take “adverse action” against organizations for speaking about political issues from a religious perspective. Under the Johnson Amendment, the IRS can revoke an organization’s tax-exempt status if it violates the law and endorses a candidate.

The order may have little impact other than signaling to the religious right, said Monette Richards, president of the northeastern Ohio chapter of the Center for Inquiry, a nonpartisan organization focused on creating a secular society.

“The Johnson Amendment is not enforced already,” she said. “I do think it was President Trump’s way of signaling to the religious that we’re not going to enforce this, we are going to hold your religious values up above the right of the people.”

Richards anticipates the debate over separation of church and state will continue.

“It’s going to get pretty ugly,” she said.