IRS: Churches Can Now Back Political Candidates, But Scholars Remain Concerned

In a July 7 court filing, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that churches can now endorse political candidates without losing their tax-exempt status. This news follows over seven decades since the Johnson Amendment, a U.S. tax code provision that prohibited non-profit organizations and churches from intervening in political campaigns.

Religion, American public life, and Black church studies scholars argue that this moment marks a significant erosion of the separation of church and state.

Dr. Valerie Cooper“Both the government and the church are incredibly powerful institutions,” says Dr. Valerie Cooper, an associate professor of religion and society and Black church studies at Duke Divinity School and senior fellow at the Center for Theological Inquiry (CTI). “While it is important for citizens to be able to bring their religious convictions to their civic life, there is a concern, for me, as a person who loves the Christian church, about churches selling out for government power and losing their ability to be a prophetic voice.”

Since 1954, only one house of worship has lost its tax-exempt status for violating this amendment.

“The law has not changed, but the interpretation has,” says Dr. Corey D. B. Walker, Dean of Wake Forest University's School of Divinity and a professor of the humanities. “What the IRS has said is that they're not going to bring any cases for churches violating the Johnson Amendment.”

According to Cooper, “conservative churches, particularly, white evangelicals, have been after this for years, if not decades,” she says in an interview with Diverse. “There are hot-button issues, and they've distributed information doing everything short of endorsements.”

The issue has caught the attention of civil rights leaders like the Reverend Al Sharpton who said that the issue has to be studied carefully to ensure that "it does not create a double-edged sword."Dr. Corey D. B. Walker