Yesterday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order so named. It repeals the Johnson Amendment. Named after Lyndon B. Johnson–who was a senator from Texas at that time and later became president–this amendment was added to a Congressional bill in 1954. Until then, the Treasury Department exempted all religious organizations from paying taxes. But this amendment required it to disavow a tax exemption to any religious organization that promoted or endorsed a politician.
Yesterday I posted, “Should Trump Relax Rules on Churches Being Political?” Therein, I said I thought this law against political endorsements was good for religious organizations and thus churches. That is, religious people should park their politics outside the door when they enter the church building, synagogue, or whatever.
Christianity Today magazine reports today, in “Trump’s Religious Liberty Order Doesn’t Answer Most Evangelicals’ Prayers,” that, “Earlier this year, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) reported in its monthly Evangelical Leaders Survey that 90 percent of its board of directors, including the leaders of major denominations and ministries, oppose using the pulpit for political endorsements. Other surveys show that nearly 3 in 4 evangelicals are also against it.
‘”When it comes to challenges to religious liberty, the Johnson Amendment is just about the least important issue I can think of,’ said John Inazu, a professor at Washington University School of Law.”
This CT article also states, “The IRS rarely investigates such regulations in the first place—even blatant ones like the hundreds of pastors who preach politics on Pulpit Freedom Sunday, organized annually by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a religious liberty advocacy group.” This group is headquartered very near where I live, and I’ve met some of their leaders.
One of the issues raised in this CT article, as gleaned from its title, is that many Evangelicals also had been calling for President Donald Trump to protect religious organizations from being accused of discriminating against LGBT and thereby lose certain privileges or even face criminal charges. But Trump’s order bypassed this. Some people and politicians had been calling for a revision of the Johnson Amendment.
This CT article says of church pastors, “NAE president Leith Anderson said in February, ‘They are grateful for rules that keep them out of political endorsement differences and battles.’” The article concludes with this NAE statement, “Anything done by executive order can be undone by a future president. Threats to religious freedom in America need to be addressed through legislative action that protects religious liberty for all Americans. We call on President Trump to work with members of Congress to pass legislation that strengthens the rights of all Americans and allows the organizations they form to operate in ways that are consistent with their beliefs.”
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