The Johnson Amendment, which became law in the U.S. in 1954
and was named for Lyndon Johnson, then a U.S. Senator, “is a provision in the
tax code that prohibits tax-exempt organizations from openly supporting
political candidates. In the words of the tax code, ‘all section 501(c)(3)
organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly
participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in
opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”[1]
I submit that it is in a cleric’s interest to expand this prohibition to
include advocating for (or opposing) particular public policies. This general
principle would of course be subject to exceptions in which a proposed or
enacted policy is strongly anathema to the religious
principles of the given religious organization or religion.
[1]
Randall Balmer, “The
Peril of Being Partisan at the Pulpit,” Stars and Stripes, February 7,
2017.
