IRS ban on churches endorsing candidates questioned
Among the many policy positions embedded in the 2016 Republican Party Platform is a call to repeal the Johnson Amendment, a controversial Internal Revenue Service regulation that has come under fire from churches and religious freedom advocates in recent years.
The little-known tax provision applies exclusively to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, precluding them from endorsing — or campaigning against — candidates for federal elected office.
The rationale behind the Johnson Amendment is that nonprofit organizations and churches are exempt from paying certain taxes and, therefore, should not be permitted to show power or sway in the election of candidates.
But many Republicans and conservatives have long held that the amendment, which was authored by then-Texas Democrat Sen. Lyndon Johnson, unfairly constrains churches’ First Amendment rights, a claim laid out in the 2016 GOP platform.
“Republicans believe the federal government, specifically the IRS, is constitutionally prohibited from policing or censoring speech based on religious convictions or beliefs, and therefore we urge the repeal of the Johnson Amendment,” the platform reads. “We pledge to … safeguard religious institutions against government control.”
The plank against the Johnson Amendment has its critics, many of whom accuse the GOP of misrepresenting the debate at hand.
“Claims that there exists a ban on political activity by churches and faith leaders are simply false,” said Michael De Dora, director of public policy for the Center for Inquiry — a group that works to foster secularism in society. “The Johnson Amendment does not prohibit political activity by churches and faith leaders. It prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including both houses of worship and non-profit organizations, from directly or indirectly endorsing or opposing political candidates.”
He explained that both churches and faith leaders are legally permitted to speak out on political and social issues, including abortion, poverty, doctor-assisted suicide, health care and a variety of other matters.
De Dora added that religious organizations openly engage in lobbying, spending hundreds of millions of dollars per year to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill.
“This includes many large Christian organizations such as the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Family Research Council,” he said.
But Christiana Holcomb, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, said the issue is more about whether the government should control political speech coming from the pulpit.
“Pastors should be the ones to decide what they preach from the pulpit … that should be a pastor’s decision, not the IRS,” Holcomb told the Deseret News.
Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump echoed similar sentiments as he introduced his vicepresidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.
“You are absolutely shunned if you’re an evangelical if you want to talk religion; you lose your taxexempt status,” Trump said. “We’re going to get rid of that horrible Johnson amendment and we’re going to let evangelicals, we’re going to let Christians and Jews and people of religion, talk without being afraid to talk.”
The IRS defines a nonprofit governed by the political campaign activity ban as one “which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”