House Committee Schemes to Let Churches Evade Electioneering Law
When Donald Trump was courting the religious conservative vote during the 2016 presidential campaign, one of the prizes he offered them was the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, the provision of federal law that prevents churches and other tax-exempt organizations (such as this one) from endorsing or opposing political candidates. Though he vowed to “totally destroy” the amendment, so far he has only been able to soften it, and mostly symbolically, through an executive order signed in May.
The fact remains, however, that the Johnson Amendment is quite popular, with well over two-thirds of the public in support, including over half of white evangelicals, because they understand that churches don’t belong in the business of electioneering, nor do they want to see their houses of worship turning into political action committees. This is really a project of the extreme religious right, which would like to use churches as a means of bankrolling their favored candidates.