Trump puts God back on the ballot

It was the summer of 1954, and Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson was locked in a primary fight with fellow Democrat Dudley Dougherty.

Flush with cash, Texas oil tycoons threw their support behind Dougherty through tax-exempt organizations like Facts Forum and the Committee for Constitutional Government. But Johnson, political shark that he was, quietly slipped in a new amendment to the IRS code banning tax-exempt organizations from engaging in partisan political activity.

Lyndon Johnson sailed through the primary, and the name Dudley Dougherty became lost to history. The Johnson Amendment lived on, though in the present age, it has been contorted by political activists to crack down on Christians.

Johnson’s intention was not to censor religious institutions. It wasn’t for another 50 years that a new McCarthyism began to take hold – a sweeping effort to diminish the influence of Christianity in public life. In 2004, All Saints Church in Pasadena, California, drew IRS scrutiny after a guest sermon, delivered days before the presidential election, criticized the Iraq War and implied opposition to President George W. Bush – prompting an investigation under the Johnson Amendment.

The IRS ultimately dropped the case, but the incident ignited national controversy and delivered an unmistakable message about how the Johnson Amendment could be used to hush churches. For believing Christians, their faith permeates every aspect of their lives, politics included. Most religious leaders consider it essential to guide their flocks during election season.

To chill religious leaders’ political speech is certainly against the spirit of the Founding Fathers. Despite misguided interpretations about the separation of church and state, the doctrine was never explicitly endorsed by a single one of them. The phrase appeared in one letter by Thomas Jefferson in which he reaffirmed the Constitution’s promise not to elevate any single Christian denomination as the national faith.

Conservatives have long noted the double standard with the Johnson Amendment. Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were routinely welcomed in black churches to deliver overtly political speeches, and rarely did anyone bat an eye. IRS scrutiny over the years has overwhelmingly targeted conservative churches.

For God-fearing Christian leaders, the Johnson Amendment was never an albatross. Fearless speech is intrinsic to the faith. The real problems arose when every sermon, every homily and moral stance was labeled as political. For the orthodox faithful, it is not possible to support a politician who openly advocates for abortion or same-sex marriage or transgenderism. This is not political speech, but a declaration of Christian truth.

To that end, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is perhaps the most prominent tattle-tale against religious Americans. The over 40,000 super-edgy atheists have spent years reporting churches to the federal government. Though they claim to be nonpartisan, nearly 90 percent of members report to be liberal. The Johnson Amendment was their secret weapon to intimidate their political opponents.

But on July 7, the IRS entered into a consent decree in a Texas lawsuit, agreeing to, in most instances, stop enforcing the Johnson Amendment against churches. Conservatives are hailing this as a major win for religious liberty.

President Donald Trump touted this victory at the first-ever White House Faith Office Luncheon – an unsettling mélange of business, wealth, and Christianity. “We’re getting rid of the Johnson Amendment that didn’t let the pastors and ministers and everybody speak about politics,” the president proclaimed.

If it wasn’t already evident, the Republican Party now commands a near-monopoly on championing religious freedom. With the Johnson Amendment effectively defunct, the GOP may benefit from a groundswell of local churches entering the political sphere. Last year, a study found that nearly all Protestant pastors – 98 percent – did not endorse a candidate in church leading up to the 2024 election. This number will inevitably decline once pastors feel their muzzles lift.

However, the ramifications of nixing the Johnson Amendment may prove more far-reaching. One must remember that in Washington, cash is the only god that reigns supreme.

Churches enjoy abundant tax exemptions, and rightly so. Besides just being in the humble business of saving souls, they are more important for societal cohesion and the public good than any other institution. But in the United States, this also means they face fewer financial disclosure rules.

As Ellen Aprill, a tax law professor at Loyola Marymount University Law School recently put it, “One of my concerns… is this will encourage the creation of fraudulent churches who want to be able to get tax deductible money to engage in opposing or supporting candidates… so they don’t have to disclose any other campaign intervention activities.”

Imagine for a moment. Donors could funnel money through churches, claim tax deductions and fund campaign-style activity with no financial disclosure. Particularly crafty candidates may even use church events, sermons and outreach to rally support. When money enters the picture, even exploiting Christianity for political ends becomes fair game for the ambitious.

Though Republicans hail the Johnson Amendment’s demise as a short-term win, they’d be wise not to overlook the possibility of a new dark money scheme in its nascent stage. So it goes, in American politics. But to use the sacred as a tax-sheltered war chest, well, such must remain verboten.