It’s one of those unintended consequences.” “It was nothing to do with religion at all. “And the way he found to deal with them was to pull the plug on their tax-exempt status,” Davidson said. Davidson, emeritus professor of sociology at Purdue University, said Johnson aimed the provision at political opponents trying to get him out of office. They say it wasn’t intended to muzzle ministers. “What we’re asking is that houses of worship should follow the law, (and) the IRS should prosecute them for defying the law,” he said.īut some scholars suggest that pastors simply got caught in the cross-hairs of the Johnson Amendment. “I would say the majority of the complaints did come in from congregations that were opposed to President Obama or emphatically endorsed Mitt Romney,” he said. “As a minister myself, I can think of nothing worse than turning our pulpits into super (political action committees) for one party or the other,” Baines said.īaines said his group received more than 100 complaints leading up to the election. And bad for religious freedom in the United States. Ordained as a Southern Baptist minister and now a part of the Disciples of Christ, Baines said pastors using the pulpit to endorse candidates is bad public policy. “What that minister did was link it to one particular candidate or one office and that’s where he crossed the line,” Baines said. Steven Baines, director of religious outreach at the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United, a group that says it is dedicated to preserving church-state separation, said Hibbs’ comments about political platforms were a violation of the IRS law. Those who support the Johnson Amendment say churches like Calvary Chapel Chino Hills should lose their tax-exempt status. “Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes,” the law says. Johnson, D-Texas, the law was based on the premise that tax-exempt organizations should not publicly endorse or oppose political candidates. Others say he didn’t.Ĭongress in 1954 passed the Johnson Amendment.
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