Why would you want to tie your church to a politician?
On the new IRS rule about endorsing candidates from the pulpit
The IRS reversed course this week on over half a century worth of policy, and announced it would no longer strip the tax-exempt status of churches who explicitly endorse and support candidates from the pulpit. This is a radical departure from existing policy, and a blow for the First Amendment and the religious freedom in America.
The Johnson Amendment, which is the act of Congress under which the IRS was operating, is a guard against undue government interference in the business of churches and religious organizations. The prohibition of partisan politics from the pulpit may feel like a restriction on religious freedom on its face, but it is minor restriction in service of avoiding a much worse scenario: that of the government favoring churches who support it and the party in power. By barring all churches from explicit support of party and politicians, churches are protected from reprisals when their chosen side doesn’t win. The tax exempt status of churches is part of this; it creates a policy vacuum, in which churches mind their own business, and the state does the same.
This new policy, coming at the behest of right wing evangelicals, is being celebrated as a win for religious freedom. But, in a nation where we are increasingly finding ourselves at the whims of Donald Trump and his Administration, it doesn’t feel like a win for the religious freedom of communities like my own, who have taken an outspoken stance, not against the President or his Party, but against the policies they are pursuing. This doesn’t free us up to endorse Democrats, something very few progressive Christians are interested in doing. Instead, it opens us up to unfair and inequitable treatment under the law, allowing certain churches to get favorable outcomes based on their outspoken fealty to and support for certain parties and politicians.
This also strikes at the religious freedom of individual Christians in the pews. Your voice is now subsumed under that of your pastor and your church if they choose to endorse a candidate. As a member of a church, the clergy speaks for you at times, and now, the clergy can endorse a politician and their actions in your name, officially. Not only that, they can use your tithe to financially support political parties. One of the on-going refrains from the right against unions is their perception that it is unfair for unions to use the dues of their members in ways they may not individually support. This move by politically-motivated churches is no different.
I have never refrained from endorsing candidates from the pulpit because of the IRS rule. I have refrained because that is the right thing to do. Christianity has no business aligning itself with partisan apparatus or investing itself in the mechanisms of any political system or constitution. The Good News of the Gospel is much bigger than any of that. It cannot be contained by what Rev. Dr. William Barber calls, “the puny language of partisanship.” It concerns itself with right and wrong much more than the “right and left” framework, a framework that is often hypocritical and much more interested in “winning” than in the actual care and protection of either humanity or our planet.
The question that comes to mind for me is, why would you want to tie your church - and its witness in the world - to any politician or political party so explicitly? I don’t deny that often our churches have strong areas of overlap when it comes to policy concerns. But, to endorse candidates from the pulpit - to put the full weight of a religious body behind a political party - is to subsume the universal Good News of Jesus underneath the needs of a political party. It is to put an unhealthy dose of faith in a politician or political party, two groups that have proven time and time again they are not worthy of such faith. What happens when that politician or political party inevitably disappoints you, acts in a way you don’t like, or even worse, acts in a way deeply immoral or unethical? Sure, your pastor can come out and condemn it in that moment. But, the moral stain has leaked onto your congregation, because you are explicitly responsible for getting that person or that party into power. To endorse candidates is to tie your Christian witness to fallible and corrupted human beings and their institutions. Why would you want that?
It’s just another strike against our proud heritage of liberty in America from Donald Trump and his MAGA coalition. Thank God our hope lies elsewhere, for those of us who continue to refuse to submit our churches to him.