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religion
Group Fights 'Flagrant, Self-Serving Attack on Church-State Separation' by Trump IRS
"President Trump and his Christian nationalist allies are once again exploiting religion to boost their own political power," said the head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Jul 11, 2025
Americans United for Separation of Church and State on Thursday took a step toward blocking a proposed settlement that would officially allow churches to endorse U.S. political candidates and retain their nonprofit, tax-exempt status.
The advocacy group's move came in response to a proposed settlement to a lawsuit brought by the National Religious Broadcasters and Intercessors for America and two Christian churches—Sand Springs Church and First Baptist Church Waskom—against the provision of the federal tax code that blocks such endorsements, the Johnson Amendment.
Rather than fully scrapping the policy named for former President Lyndon B. Johnson, the plaintiffs and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Monday filed a proposed settlement that would create an exception for houses of worship. Although the proposal would formalize a common practice, it was widely blasted as "dangerous for democracy."
Americans United (AU) is now requesting intervenor status in the case, writing to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas—which can approve or reject the settlement—that "defendants have taken the consequential step of abandoning the defense of a federal law that has safeguarded our democracy for decades."
"The majority of Americans—including faith leaders, evangelical Christians, and Republicans—don't want their churches embroiled in the corrupting influence of partisan politics."
The filing explains that "as defendant-intervenor, Americans United will provide a critical perspective, including timely arguments opposing the proposed consent decree, that will otherwise be absent from this case and that will support this court's duty to reject entry of unlawful consent decrees."
"By preventing religious and other 501(c)(3) organizations from intervening in political campaigns, the Johnson Amendment protects their financial independence, ensuring that they are not corrupted by money and led astray from their intended missions," the document states. "That consideration applies to houses of worship and other religious entities just as much as to other nonprofits, and is in keeping with the fundamental principle underlying the separation of church and state: Religious freedom is best preserved by keeping religion apart from the corrupting influences of politics."
Ending the restriction on churches—which is rarely enforced by the IRS—has long been a priority for President Donald Trump. During his first term, in his 2017 address to the National Prayer Breakfast, he vowed to "get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution."
AU president and CEO Rachel Laser said in a Friday statement that "the Trump administration's radical reinterpretation of the Johnson Amendment is a flagrant, self-serving attack on church-state separation that threatens our democracy by favoring houses of worship over other nonprofits and inserting them into partisan politics."
"President Trump and his Christian Nationalist allies are once again exploiting religion to boost their own political power. We're intervening in this case so we can urge the court to reject the administration's latest gambit to rewrite the law," Laser continued. "Americans United has long supported the Johnson Amendment because it protects the integrity of both our elections and nonprofit organizations, including houses of worship."
"The majority of Americans—including faith leaders, evangelical Christians, and Republicans—don't want their churches embroiled in the corrupting influence of partisan politics," she added. "Weakening this law would undermine houses of worship and nonprofits by transforming them into political action committees, flooding our elections with even more dark money."
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'Dangerous for Democracy': Trump IRS Says Nonprofit Churches Can Make Political Endorsements
"Holy shit, a real masks-off moment," said one professor. "The divide between church and state is already falling. The divide between church and political group will disappear."
Jul 08, 2025
"This is another dark day for our democracy."
That's what American Humanist Association (AHA) executive director Fish Stark said in a Tuesday statement responding to a move from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to allow houses of worship to endorse political candidates.
When former President Lyndon B. Johnson was a senator, he introduced a provision of the U.S. tax code that bans organizations from participating or intervening in campaigns for public office as a condition for keeping their nonprofit, tax-exempt status.
The National Religious Broadcasters and Intercessors for America and two Christian churches—Sand Springs Church and First Baptist Church Waskom—wanted a federal court in Texas to strike down the Johnson Amendment. Instead, according to a Monday filing from the plaintiffs and Internal Revenue Service intended to settle the case, the IRS created a formal exception for houses of worship.
Noting the definitions of participate and intervene, the filing states that "bona fide communications internal to a house of worship, between the house of worship and its congregation, in connection with religious services, do neither of those things, any more than does a family discussion concerning candidates."
"Thus, communications from a house of worship to its congregation in connection with religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of faith do not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted," the document continues.
R.I.P. The Johnson Amendment, 1954-2025
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— Robert Downen (@robertdownen.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 12:16 PM
While the court could reject the plan laid out by the Trump IRS and plaintiffs in this case, observers responded to the settlement document by declaring the 1954 Johnson Amendment "essentially overturned" and "effectively DEAD."
Like many critics of the decision, the court filing acknowledges that its new interpretation "is in keeping with the IRS' treatment of the Johnson Amendment in practice," as the agency "generally has not enforced the Johnson Amendment against houses of worship for speech concerning electoral politics in the context of worship services."
Also highlighting that "it's been clear that many churches were both collecting tax deductions while engaging in partisan politics, so this merely formalizes the practice," Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, wrote on social media, "Holy shit, a real masks-off moment."
"There is already a problem of political operations pretending to be churches," he added, citing 2022 ProPublica reporting. "The divide between church and state is already falling. The divide between church and political group will disappear."
Christa Brown—whose memoir Baptistland tells the story of abuse she endured in her Texas childhood church—said that "churches were already doing this but now it's going to get a lot worse. Bad for the country, dangerous for democracy, and terrible for the separation of church and state. Inevitably, heaps of dark money will now get funneled through churches to influence elections."
AHA's Stark issued a similar warning, saying that "the Johnson Amendment, though weakened over the years by lax enforcement, is the small but mighty dam standing in the way of a torrent of dark money influencing our elections. Now that the Trump administration has opened the door to pastors and houses of worship explicitly backing candidates for office, all bets are off."
"There will be little to stop billionaires from funneling money through churches to buy our elections—and they will get a tax write-off for doing it, all subsidized by American taxpayers," Stark continued. "Weakening the Johnson Amendment to consolidate political power has long been a priority for Christian nationalists—and now they have the megaphone they've been waiting for for decades."
Americans United for Separation of Church and State president and CEO Rachel Laser said Tuesday that "the Trump administration's radical reinterpretation of the Johnson Amendment is a brazen attack on church-state separation that threatens our democracy by favoring houses of worship over other nonprofits and inserting them into partisan politics. It's President Trump and his Christian nationalist allies' signature move: exploiting religion to boost their own political power."
"For more than 70 years, the Johnson Amendment has reflected the will of the American people, the majority of whom want to protect the integrity of our elections and shield our houses of worship from the corrupting influences of partisan politicking," Laser added, urging the court "to reject the administration's latest gambit to rewrite the law through the judicial system."
Trump’s IRS just declared churches can endorse political candidates from the pulpit.This move upends a core protection for church-state separation, AND erodes the freedom and independence of churches.www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/u...
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— Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons (@guthriegf.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, also criticized the "deeply concerning" court filing for "furthering an assault on the bedrock principle that charitable organizations must remain nonpartisan in law, fact, and purpose in order to serve their missions and communities."
"This action—long sought by President Trump—is not about religion or free speech, but about radically altering campaign finance laws," Yentel argued. "The decree could open the floodgates for political operatives to funnel money to their preferred candidates while receiving generous tax breaks at the expense of taxpayers who may not share those views."
Some political leaders also weighed in. Congressman Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said that "this is really bad. The merger of tax-exempt conservative churches with the MAGA Republican Party is complete. It started with endless rightwing attacks on the IRS, leading to partisan political operations like Family Research Council posing as 'churches,' and now this. American taxpayers are now subsidizing both partisan (mainly GOP) politics and religion."
California state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-25) concluded that "if churches can make political endorsements and make political donations, they can pay taxes."
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Can Humanity Grow Up Into a World Beyond Foes?
When “all the foe is vanquished”... or deported, or bombed to smithereens, what the foe will never be is understood.
Jun 29, 2025
I’ve been away from “the world” for a while—by which I mean, away from home and my life of computer-focused hermitude.
As I wait for round two of my cataract surgery (my right eye), I remain with my loving family in Appleton, Wisconsin. Yeah, I have my computer with me, but hardly have the wherewithal to stay intensely focused on global events, beyond “Oh my God, we’re bombing Iran now?” and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement gunmen are rounding up “illegals” all across the country.
As I sit on the couch, presumably recovering from my left-eye surgery, I want to scream and shove all this obnoxious news into a corner of my mind, where I can absorb it slowly, in a context of hope. Yeah, we will move beyond all this. The media may not report on it, but humanity is evolving. Right?
This is what I believe—or tell myself to believe—but the only way I can maintain this belief is by... somehow, oh Lord, participating in our evolution, helping to create a tomorrow that isn’t globally structured around war and winning and “the other.” In my current circumstances, as I sit plunked on the couch in my sister’s living room, my eyes closed and my mind wandering, I hardly feel like a participant in what matters. I’m not atop the news. I’m not atop my own life.
Instead, I sit on the couch in the middle of the day, semi-asleep, my thoughts simply drifting to strange places. For some reason, an old church hymn shows up. I grew up in the Lutheran church. As a boy, everything about it mostly bored me. But there was one thing that revved my enthusiasm—war hymns! I left it all behind long ago, but as I sat on the couch, achy and psychologically lost, I started humming an oldie...
Fight on, fight on for Jesus.
Ye soldiers of the cross...
Huh? Where did this come from?
Lift high his royal banner.
It must no suffer loss.
I couldn’t stop it. I was 9-years-old again.. or 10 or 11, suddenly perked up, rescued from the pastor’s boring sermon. John Wayne had just walked in, wearing his boots and vest and cowboy hat, with two holsters on his belt.
From victory unto victory,
His army He shall lead,
Till all the foe is vanquished
And Christ is Lord indeed.
No, this was not a sudden soul-snatch, a return of the religion to my life that I had walked away from. Just the opposite. I sat in awe, hearing the snarky lyrics—singing them, at least to myself–that, as far as I can tell, are aimed at everyone’s inner 9-year-old. Love thy neighbor, but kill thine enemies. No big deal when you have access to nothing more dangerous than a videogame or a TV remote. But if you’re a grownup and the message the lyrics convey still thrums within, that violence is the ultimate solution, quietly waiting to be put to use, then we have a problem. When “all the foe is vanquished”... or deported, or bombed to smithereens, what the foe will never be is understood.
And we won’t evolve without understanding–without collectively growing up. So I got off the couch and grabbed a pen.
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