In case you haven’t finished reading the 429-page House Republicans tax bill, go to pages 427 and 428 to see what it proposes to do regarding the Johnson Amendment. Passed in 1954 and named for its chief sponsor, Senator Lyndon Johnson, the amendment prohibits politicking by tax-exempt nonprofits, including churches and other religious institutions. Under the Republicans’ proposal, pastors and other religious leaders would be free to endorse candidates from the pulpit, though they would not be able to otherwise engage in politics—by, for example, fundraising for a favorite candidate.
First Amendment scholar Charles Haynes told the Washington Post that “it’s really a carve-out to make sure, in the views of those who support it, that the pulpit is a free-speech zone.” That’s a fair description of what the Republicans are proposing: A carve-out from existing law that effectively creates a free-speech zone for religious speech in churches and other religious entities, but nothing more than that. As for non-religious nonprofits, they are not included in the carve-out and thus would remain prohibited by the Johnson Amendment from being at all involved in politics.
Though it has rarely been enforced against churches or other religious institutions, evangelical pastors and activists say the amendment has made preachers reluctant to endorse candidates for office. As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump agreed, contending that the relative absence of political speech by religious figures has rendered “Christianity in America … weaker, weaker, weaker.” Trump vowed to make Christianity stronger by repealing the amendment. It would be, he said, forever modest, his “greatest contribution to Christianity.” Not surprisingly, the Republican platform—for the first time—called for the amendment’s repeal.
Trump said last week that he wants to “totally destroy” the amendment. That implies a total repeal. But the partial repeal the House Republicans have proposed would be easier to pass. And if it fails, it could be made an issue in 2018.
Getting congressional majorities to support repeal legislation promises to be hard work. Evangelicals, more than 80 perscent of whom voted for Trump, seem to like him more than they do his call for repealing the Johnson Amendment. Consider that earlier this year 89 percent of evangelical pastors told the National Association of Evangelicals, the evangelical lobby in Washington, D.C., that they don’t think clergy should endorse politicians from the pulpit. And 79 percent of churchgoers told Lifeway in Nashville that they didn’t want their pastor endorsing a candidate in a sermon.
Trump’s election has made possible a repeal effort. The question is what form repeal legislation will now take and, of course, whether it will pass both chambers, as Trump clearly is prepared to sign a repeal measure into law.
