Christian Ministries Will Rue the Day the Johnson Amendment Is Repealed

In a recent court filing, the IRS said the-so called Johnson Amendment, which bars all nonprofits from being involved in political campaigns, should not apply to political speech during religious services.

The IRS decision still awaits a judge’s approval, but – if it comes – it will be a major victory for the Trump Administration and the fulfillment of a promise to at least one segment of his political base. Trump made the repeal of the Johnson Amendment an important part of his stump speech to religious groups at least since 2016. I was in a meeting in Trump Tower that year with Trump and about forty other evangelical leaders. In that meeting, Trump seemed tentative about many of the issues that energized the people in his conference room that day. But about the Johnson Amendment, he was abundantly clear. “I’m going to do that for you,” he said.

There is, however, another perspective. The perspective that repeal of the Johnson Amendment is a bad idea and will result in bad actors using religious groups as a mere front for political activism. It is a perspective I share.

Now, before you get the wrong idea, I should immediately say that I am not a fan of the government telling churches or ministries what to say or do or, more specifically in this case, what not to say or do.

But the Johnson Amendment was a gift to the church, and we will rue the day this rule changed.

For one thing, the vast majority of churches do not even want to violate the Johnson Amendment. The Johnson Amendment has zero impact on their behaviors, speech, or freedom of conscience. Most Christian organizations, even conservative ones, understood that their primary mission was not politics, but the Gospel. For these organizations, the Johnson Amendment provided a guardrail for churches. It made it easy to focus on the unchanging truth of the Gospel and not on the ebb and flow of political events.

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Now, though, it seems certain that some groups, likely those with large media footprints, will push harder in the direction of political advocacy. It is no coincidence that the National Religious Broadcasters brought the lawsuit that is motivating this potential rule change. This change will also make it easier for the NRB and its members – mostly Christian radio, television, and digital ministries – to be more open in their political and issues advocacy. The NRB has long had ties to the Republican Party, and with Donald Trump in particular. The repeal of the Johnson Amendment will likely bring that advocacy out of the shadows and make it more explicit and overt.

A second concern, and perhaps my biggest, is not that existing organizations will now become more politically active. It is likely that we will see a new class of Christian “ministries” emerge. This class will be made up of groups whose primary mission is political advocacy, but who camouflage their political activism beneath a thin Christian-ish veneer.

It is also likely that the repeal of the Johnson Amendment will make both religious and political organizations less transparent. “Churches” and “associations of churches” do not file a Form 990, which is an important disclosure and accountability documents. If political advocacy groups claim the “church” exemption to avoid disclosure requirements, it will super-charge an already growing problem. This new class of Christian “ministry” will provide a new way for “dark money” to enter the political process.

A third reason the repeal of the Johnson Amendment is bad for the church is that it will further damage the credibility of the church.

 Far too many people already believe – and with good cause – that some churches and ministries are mere disguises for political activism. If this development reinforces that belief, it will have a negative impact on the legitimate Gospel work of Christian ministries.

Mainstream, secular media play a significant role in this negative perception. There is no doubt that the media have sensationalized and highlighted the political activism of some Christian ministries. The media’s role as “conflict entrepreneurs” has eroded trust in the church, in Christian ministries, and the positive role that Christianity has played in civil society. The media will seize on the most outrageous activities of a few fringe ministries, and they will then tell their audiences that these fringe players – such as Sean Feucht, Charlie Kirk, Rob McCoy, Lance Wallnau – are representative of the whole. With the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, men like these – and many others – will give the media a daily supply of grist for their mill.

This country needs the church, but both the church and the country need the church to be the church. It needs the moral and ethical voice of the church, and it needs what only a truly biblical and Gospel-centered church can bring.

The philosopher Jacques Ellul spoke of “the political illusion,” which is the illusion that our problems are political, and that the solution to our problems can be brought about by political means. This new ruling makes it far too easy for the church to further succumb to this political illusion, to get “faked out of position,” far too easy for the media and the church itself to blur the line between political activism and the true mission of the church, which is not to bring political solutions, but to bring the transforming grace of God – the Gospel – to a broken world.