Churches campaigning for Trump? Take away their tax-exempt status.
Non Paywalled Link: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/x2zrw
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It’s a brazen effort to transform religious congregations — which are technically supposed to keep electoral politics out of the pulpit — into a campaign powerhouse for the former president.
He spent much of the recent holiday weekend attempting to trash the legacy of a storied Christian reverend, Martin Luther King, Jr.)
The law is rarely enforced, and has been skirted by churches of all political orientations — whether by pastors who make their personal endorsements public or by congregations organizing turnout-boosting efforts like “souls to the polls.”
But Trump has made clear he won’t punish churches that violate the Johnson amendment in 2024, even vowing on a Christian nationalist broadcast last May that he’ll abolish the prohibition if reelected.
During his podcast, Wallnau insisted that the Courage Tour will also be working with right-wing women’s groups including Moms for America — which touts “truth, family, freedom and the Constitution” — and Concerned Women for America, a group dedicated to “Biblical values and Constitutional principles.” Wallnau insisted: “We’re creating a broad net.”
The movement poses a danger to democracy because it “sees no room for compromise,” Andrew Whitehead, author of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States has told Rolling Stone.
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religious congregations — which are technically supposed to keep electoral politics out of the pulpit
Why would large, well-organized, ideologically unified groups of people stay out of electoral politics?
Aren’t these exactly the kinds of organizations you’d expect to be hip deep in political organizing and activism?
The movement poses a danger to democracy
I have to say that I think their views are often shit. But they are fundamentally popular shit. Hardly antidemocratic.
Liberals would do well to fight fire with fire. Attend big social groups. Organize with your neighbors. Raise money, run candidates, and enforce ideological orthodoxy as a condition of membership.
Hoping that some rules lawyers at the IRS are going to make Houston’s Second Baptist Church go away seems both foolish and unproductive.
Remember, if you see or hear a church actively campaigning for any sort of politics you can report them and get their tax free status taken away. 👍
If enough get reported, especially since now it’s been vocalized and reported. They’re going to be forced to do something about it. I acknowledge it is wishful thinking, though, but don’t give up. Report these fucks either way.
Can I report a church I don’t attend, just so they become paranoid about who snitched?
Nothing at all will happen. I doubt you can find a single “legitimate” (with a real congregation & actual employees) church that has had their tax free status challenged, let alone removed in the last 30 years.
That’s the brilliant thing about the making politics about cultural issues. Churches can campaign for culture shit all day long. They just can’t say “vote for _____.”
Even when they do, and I have sent in photos of a local church with “Trump 2020” on their placard, nothing at all happens to them.
They aren’t even contacted as far as I can tell.
Maybe cc a news organization or three on the email to the IRS next time and they can do some follow-up reporting on it?
Failing that, there ought to be some way a lawsuit could get filed that could force the IRS to do their job, though that’d be an expensive and time consuming thing
It’s more pointing out how the suggested action is bullshit. It’s like if you had a leaking roof and someone said to blow soap bubbles on it. And then when you point out that’s a nonsensical solution that has no chance of working, they reply “oH, so YoU juSt waNT to Do NotHinG anD bE apaThEtic?”
Pointing out that someones suggestion is a non-solution is not an endorsement of doing nothing. It’s pointing out that the suggestion is not helpful and distracts from actual solutions.
Pretending the IRS would actually go after a church is ignoring the reality of the situation. I don’t want suggestions that would only work in some deluded made up fantasy world.
I’ve reported a church, with photo evidence from multiple angles. Literally nothing happened.
That law has never been enforced against a “legitimate” church.
I didn’t know that was a thing that could happen
I’ve got to do some research because my grandparents church has been doing this since Bush Sr.
Not a single church ever has had their tax status taken away for politics. It doesn’t happen
you can report them and get their tax free status taken away
And remember, that report will go nowhere and you’ll accomplish nothing! The IRS has never gone after a church for this. Never. Reporting them is just as effective as quietly whispering “please tax them” into your pillow at night.
I wish people would recognize the failures in our system and stop suggesting others do shit that doesn’t actually work.
I also wish people would stop saying there’s no hope so do nothing.
No, record them and send it to the IRS. If nothing happens then fine. Nothing was lost. Along with that work towards change. Telling people the system is broken so do nothing is not going to get you the change you want.
Yes, violate your 501c status. We’re watching and ready to report you.
Effectively 1/3 of the US is Nones (and growing). I don’t have the breakdown in front of me, but a sizeable number are “switchers,” people who left their childhood religion.
I’m personally now an ex-fundigelical antitheist, so I would relish the opportunity to report them!
Imagine what would happen if a bunch of people “came back to the flock” only to report churches for violations. Imagine how paranoid they’d all be. It’d be hilarious.
It’s not like the IRS would do anything about it.
Christofacists are the fucking worst