If a judge approves a proposed court order, the IRS will soon allow churches to endorse candidates from the pulpit again without losing their nonprofit status.
Churches lost the right to endorse candidates after the 1954 Johnson Amendment by former President Lyndon Johnson was approved.
The Johnson Amendment prohibits nonprofits “from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office,” according to the IRS.
Johnson – at that time a senator – was “running for re-election, and he and other members of Congress pushed the amendment to stop support for their political opponents’ campaigns,” according to Time.
A recent lawsuit filed by the National Religious Broadcasters and a few churches against the IRS may change the way the amendment affects churches, however.
National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) is an association of Christian communicators that – among other things – advocates for freedom of speech.
NRB and the churches involved in the case state that the Johnson Amendment “violates their First Amendment rights to the freedom of speech and free exercise of religion, their Fifth Amendment rights to due process of law and equal protection under the law, and the Religious Freedom Restoration.”
Both plaintiffs and defendants jointly motioned in a proposed court order that “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.”
If the order is approved, the IRS will recognize that “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.’”
“Bona fide communications internal to a house of worship, between the house of worship and its congregation, in connection with religious services, do neither of those things, any more than does a family discussion concerning candidates,” the proposed court order said.
“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 court order said.
When asked twice for comment, the IRS did not respond.
NRB General Counsel Mike Farris told The Center Square “this is all tentative until the judge approves the proposed order,” and so NRB will not yet comment.
Likewise, NRB media relations told The Center Square that “NRB is awaiting the judge’s approval of the filing prior to publicizing our comments,” and that it “will issue this formal statement once the judge grants approval.”
The National Council of Nonprofits is against the proposed order, with its president and CEO Diane Yentel stating in a release that she believes the filing will “radically [alter] campaign finance laws” and could allow political operatives to give money to their preferred candidates while also receiving tax breaks.
As it now stands, however, the order only applies to churches.
When reached, the National Council of Nonprofits referred The Center Square to its release.
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker told The Center Square: “We are pleased with the IRS’s decision to lift its restrictions upon church sermons as it reaffirms that the government shouldn’t be able to threaten a church with financial penalties based on a requirement that the church self-censor and surrender its constitutionally protected freedom.”
“Now and always, churches have the constitutional right to speak freely,” Tucker said.
