This “Johnson Amendment", as it is now known, prohibits organizations exempt from taxes under section 501(c)(3) from participating in, or intervening in any political campaigns. The Johnson Amendment applies to all kinds of nonprofit entities, including churches.
Practically, the amendment bans churches from making campaign contributions and, perhaps more specifically, from endorsing specific candidates from the pulpit at the risk of losing tax-exempt status.
Nonprofits can still engage in certain political activities in what the amendment distinguishes between permitted and prohibited political interventions. Thus, churches can address public policy issues but may not directly contribute to nor endorse any political party or candidate for elective office.
However, in the application of the law, it is clear that black Protestant churches (composed mostly of Democratic leaning members) have been exempt from the amendment. The Pew Research Center reported that almost 50% of black Protestant pastors endorse Hilary Clinton in during the 2016 Presidential election.
During his many campaign rallies, Donald Trump, promised to work for the repeal of the Johnson Amendment if elected to the Presidency.
Following the election, President Trump remained faithful to his promise to totally destroy the Johnson Amendment “and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.”
Shortly before the Prayer Breakfast, Senator James Lankford and Representative Jody Hice introduced a bill, the Free Speech Fairness Act, to amend the ban of endorsements, but not the one on contributions.
As a Catholic Priest, I do not welcome the President's promise to repeal the Johnson Amendment.
I think it is safe to presume that the wish of the parishioners as they make their sacrificial offerings is that their contributions exclusively for the benefit of the parish. As a Pastor, I certainly believe that using their free-will offerings of parishioners to contribute to political parties or candidates would be a violation of their trust as well as a Pastor's fiduciary responsibility. And so, I believe the moral and canonical principle that the “wish of the donor” must be fulfilled still holds.
But, perhaps even more fundamentally, I believe that politics are not essential to the mission of the Church.
I believe the Church’s primary mandate is that given it by Christ and not by politically motivated or actively-engaged clergymen, namely, “to make disciples of all nations” by teaching them the wisdom of the evangelical councils and then leaving it to these same disciples to apply those counsels to the political environments and institutions they support and put in place.
What I know is this, however: Catholics (and I among them) will not welcome their Pastors being overtly political at Mass. Nor will they welcome their Bishops being equally political, thus abusing the Sacred Office which is theirs as Successors of the Apostles. I believe that the faithful have a right to expect their Pastors to focus their attention upon the Sacred Mysteries of Faith and the Sacraments and that Mass and church services not devolve into political camp meetings.
If the effort to repeal the Johnson Amendment is all about “fairness”, I believe it would be fairer for the amendment as it now stands to be fairly enforced, that is, those churches whose pastors choose to engage in political endorsements and contributions lose their tax-exempt status.
If Catholics are patient in listening to us Pastors drone on from the pulpit, then let that droning be about the Lord and not the re-hashing of issues and arguments we’ve all heard in the bombardment of political ads and posters so much a part of the American political process.
In the end, I am for the just and fair application of the Johnson Amendment and not its repeal.
What thinkest you?
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