'This won't end well': Critics rip new IRS ruling that allows churches to endorse candidates

08 July

Back in 1993, the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr.'s television program, "The Old Time Gospel Hour," was fined $50,000 by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and saw its tax-exempt status suspended for two years for engaging in overtly political activity from the pulpit. People For The American Way, the organization television producer Norman Lear (famous for 1970s sitcoms like "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons") founded to combat the Religious Right, applauded the decision but also felt that $50,000 was a slap on the wrist — as Falwell's Moral Majority and Liberty University were bringing in millions of dollars.

Thirty-two years later, critics of the Religious Right are still arguing that far-right fundamentalist evangelicals get away with violating IRS rules that allow their tax-exempt status. But the IRS, on Monday, July 7, said, in a court filing, that individual churches can endorse political candidates without violating their rules.

According to New York Times reporter David A. Fahrenthold, "The agency made that statement in a court filing intended to settle a lawsuit filed by two Texas churches and an association of Christian broadcasters. The plaintiffs that sued the IRS had previously asked a federal court in Texas to create an even broader exemption — to rule that all nonprofits, religious and secular, were free to endorse candidates to their members. That would have erased a bedrock idea of American nonprofit law: that tax-exempt groups cannot be used as tools of any campaign."

Fahrenthold adds, "Instead, the IRS agreed to a narrower carveout — one that experts in nonprofit law said might sharply increase politicking in churches, even though it mainly seemed to formalize what already seemed to be the agency's unspoken policy."

Fahrenthold notes that the "ban on campaigning by nonprofits" was "introduced by" Lyndon B. Johnson in 1954, when he was serving in the U.S. Senate. LBJ went on to become president and enjoyed a landslide victory over Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964. But despite all their political differences, LBJ and Goldwater agreed on the need for a separation of church and state — and Goldwater, during the 1980s and 1990s, was a scathing critic of Falwell and the Religious Right. Trump, however, wants to abolish the 1954 ban.

Fahrenthold's reporting is receiving a lot of feedback on X, formerly Twitter.

Some church figures are applauding the IRS' decision.

Pastor Travis Johnson tweeted, "This game changing announcement was reported the New York Times moments ago. Listen, it was ALWAYS wrong for the undue pressure for pastors to be silent AND it was always wrong many pastors choose to be silent. Now Pastors can influence the way God called them in the first place without fear and now pastors don't have an excuse not to take a stand clearly in elections."

Other X users, however, didn't have a favorable reaction.

SiriusXM host James St. James posted, "But they still don't have to pay taxes. Funny how that works…. But universities have to be apolitical to keep their tax exempt status? Got it."

Attorney Amy Bresnen argued, "This won't end well. Someday there will be a Democrat in power. I don't know when. But this person will possess temerity and an exquisite amount of 'out of f-----' that will resonate with People. It’s coming."

A social worker who goes by Dolly Madison on X tweeted, "The party of Goldwater is dead!"

Catherine G. Bennett wrote, "Not a Goldwater fan but he was so RIGHT ON THIS ISSUE! Look at us now."

X user David Sault wrote, "So can Imams from the Mosque."

Another X user, Upstate SC Pragmatist, commented, "All non-profits should lose tax exempt status, including all religious organizations."

Read David A. Fahrenthold's full New York Times article at this link (subscription required).

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