Houses of worship can now back political candidates without possibility losing their standing as tax-exempt nonprofits.
That is what the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced Monday after settling a lawsuit filed by two churches in Texas and the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). The tax agency said that “traditional religious communications are exempt from a decades-old provision in the U.S. tax code that bars nonprofits, religious and secular, from endorsing political candidates,” as reported in Reuters.
The lawsuit, filed by NRB, an association of Christian broadcasters, in August, challenged the Johnson Amendment, which was introduced in 1954 as a provision of the tax code.
The lawsuit claimed the Johnson Amendment violated a churches’ freedom of speech and free exercise of religion, as provided in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
During the tenure of President Joe Biden, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said the law was constitutional. The department added Congress could refuse “to financially support political activity while also providing tax benefits,” as Reuters reported.
President Donald Trump has been against the Johnson Amendment and wanted it to be repealed. In 2017, Trump executed an executive order to lessen prohibiting political activity by churches.
On Monday, the IRS filed that for the Johnson Amendment to include internal communications between a religious entity and its congregation may create “serious tension” with the First Amendment.
“For these reasons, the Johnson Amendment does not reach speech by a house of worship to its congregation, in connection with religious services through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith,” the IRS said.
The IRS likened a church backing a candidate as a “family discussion concerning candidates.”
Clint Pressley, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said the change is a good thing, according to the Baptist Press.
“Southern Baptists are a people of clear biblical conviction and sometimes those convictions show up in politics,” Pressley told the outlet. “The consent judgment recognizes our freedom of speech and should encourage pastors all the more to preach the Bible clearly, courageously, and convictionally.”
Miles Mullin, vice president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, concurred.
“Although it was rarely enforced, bad faith actors have used the Johnson Amendment as a tool to intimidate churches into remaining silent on a whole host of biblically informed electoral issues – not just specific candidates,” Mullin said. “This makes explicit what should have been clear all along.”
“Just like other citizens, church leaders can exercise their First Amendment rights without fear of retribution if they are convinced that circumstances demand it. They are not required to give up their freedom to speak in order to exercise their freedom to worship,” Mullins added.
The Johnson Amendment was named for then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson, who went on to become president, per Reuters.
