“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” These opening words of the United States Bill of Rights absolutely forbid the federal government from hindering the church in the performance of her duty.
“No law” shall be made. Zip. Zero. Nada. It does not say, “only reasonable laws,” or “only biblical restrictions.” It says none whatsoever.
That’s not because churches and pastors never cross the line. Misapplications of the Word of God can and do happen. But the point of the First Amendment is that the federal government has no authority to interpret the Scriptures or to correct false doctrine. That’s the church’s job, and only the church’s job.
So, when Congress passed the Johnson Amendment more than seven decades ago, thoughtful theologians and patriots cried foul.
The Johnson Amendment is named after Lyndon Baines Johnson, our 36th president. He was irked that certain Texas charitable organizations had openly opposed his return to the U.S. Senate in 1954.
So, Johnson drafted an amendment that leveraged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to chill the free speech of tax-exempt organizations. It authorizes the agency to strip an organization’s tax-exempt status if it says the wrong thing.
Specifically, 26 U.S. Code 501(c)(3) deems corporations tax-exempt if they are “organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable [and similar] purposes,” but only if they do not “participate in, or intervene in …any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”
Churches - at least Christian churches - exist to preach and teach about Jesus Christ. They have no interest in substitute saviors or political messiahs. So, few worried that they would ever run afoul of this law.
But, once the IRS was handed this cudgel, it had the power to define what is and what is not “political.”
Was John the Baptist being “political” when he called out King Herod (Matthew 14:4)? Was Jesus being “political” when he claimed to be “King of the Jews” (Matthew 27:11)? Was Saint Paul being “political” when he preached that “the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing” (Acts 19:27)?
Over seven decades, the IRS expanded its definition of “political” into alarming areas. In 2019, it denied tax-exempt status to a Texas organization called Christians Engaged. Its reasoning was alarming: “[B]ible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates. This disqualifies you from exemption under IRC Section 501(c)(3).” The letter explicitly mentioned “sanctity of life [and] the definition of marriage.”
Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, such a judgment should enrage you.
The United States government thereby declared that the platform of the Democratic Party is un-biblical. Thus, government power undermines the message of clerics who claim otherwise.
Simultaneously, the IRS has ruled that certain Bible teachings are political in nature. Thus, it threatens to revoke the tax-exempt status of any and every church that proclaims them.
This ruling lays bare the fundamental problem with the Johnson Amendment: A government with the power to judge between religion and politics is a government with the power over both.
The former Soviet Union used this very same power with ruthless efficiency. Beginning in 1917, it penalized as “political” any preacher who might openly oppose Lenin or Stalin. But its definition of “political” continued to expand. By 1931, the same Soviet officials considered the biblical doctrine that we should love all people without distinction as “political,” and impermissible. Like an anaconda, the USSR thus squeezed the Lutheran Church out of existence and kept it closed for 60 years.
Thankfully, the IRS recently reversed course. Commissioner of the IRS, Billy Long, asked the U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas to enter a consent decree stating a new IRS rule: “When a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith in connection with religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither ‘participate[s]’ nor ‘intervene[s]’ in a ‘political campaign,’”
This is welcome news. It takes away a cudgel from the IRS that has been used for seven decades to chill free speech, stifle the free exercise of religion, and actively teach a false theology of church and state.
While we continue to insist that the Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional and should be entirely deleted from federal law, we should applaud the IRS’ new policy. It removes a serious threat from pastors who want only to speak clearly and openly about every biblical doctrine.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
