After two sites in Lancaster County refused to premiere Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano’s movie “The Return of the American Patriot: The Rise of Pennsylvania,” a church in Lower Allen Township (Cumberland County), Christ Community Church, agreed to air...
How to endorse a political candidate without endorsing a political candidate. Episode 38: “The Johnson Amendment” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above have access to new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: If you...
Some of you remember this from last week: This is a clear violation of the Johnson Amendment of the United States tax code. Clergy are not permitted to endorse candidates and still keep the tax-exempt status of their churches. Americans...
Jack Hibbs, the pastor of Calvary Church in Chino Hills, California, is endorsing a candidate for the House of Representatives. Calvary Church does not pay taxes. Here is paragraph (3) of subsection (c) of the Section 501 of Title 26...
Paula White is Donald Trump’s primary spiritual advisor. She currently works for his campaign. I am not a lawyer, but isn’t this a violation of the Johnson Amendment? Finally, this is a clear example how politics holds many evangelicals captive....
This weekend court evangelical Paula White hosted a face-to-face event in Alpharetta, Georgia as part of the “Evangelicals for Trump” wing of the Trump 2020 campaign. Watch it here. Speakers included Jenetzen Franklin, Harry Jackson, Ralph Reed, Alveda King, Richard...
I have long been a fan of Steve Waldman‘s work. Check out his Sacred Liberty: America’s Long, Bloody, and Ongoing Struggle for Religious Freedom and Founding Faith: How Our Founding Fathers Forged a Radical New Approach to Religious Liberty. In a recent...
As we have discussed a few times already here at the blog, Trump will be speaking at a big “Evangelicals for Trump” rally later today in Miami. The event will take place at the King Jesus Ministry Church, evangelical megachurch. ...
Here is what I wrote about Trump and the so-called “Johnson Amendment” in Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump: Another religious-liberty issue that concerns many of the court evangelicals is the clause in the IRS tax code commonly referred...
The Johnson Amendment is the news again. As you may recall, the Christian Right has been trying to remove Lyndon Johnson’s 1954 addition to the tax code for a long time. The amendment bars churches (and other non-profit entities) from...
Over at Religion News Service, Emily McFarlan Miller and Jack Jenkins have a nice wrap-up of all the tweets, guests, speeches, etc…. Here is a taste: WASHINGTON (RNS) — The White House hosted a dinner Monday night (Aug. 27) for...
At the State Department’s recent “Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions claimed that there is a “dangerous movement, undetected by many” that is “challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom.” This “dangerous movement,” Sessions added,...
One of the reasons that the court evangelicals love Donald Trump is because they believe he will get rid of the so-called “Johnson Amendment,” the clause in the tax code that prevents churches from endorsing political candidates. There are even...
Richard Rubin is reporting that the Johnson Amendment remains part of the U.S. tax code. Here is a taste of his report at The Wall Street Journal: Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) says the chamber’s parliamentarian has blocked a proposal to...
I and others have been saying this since Donald Trump signed the order in May. Now Trump’s lawyers are finally admitting it. Here is a taste of Derek Hawkins’s piece at The Washington Post: President Trump promised a new world for...
Over 4000 clergy want Congress to preserve the so-called Johnson Amendment. You may recall that the repeal of this part of the federal tax code has been a major part of the court evangelical agenda and, by extension, Donald Trump’s...
It is now abundantly clear in the wake of Charlottesville that the court evangelicals do not have any influence with Donald Trump when it comes to racial issues. Of course such a statement implies that they have actually talked to...
The evangelical community’s response to Donald Trump’s recent executive order on religious liberty has been largely negative. As I wrote yesterday: “I don’t think Trump cares about religious liberty. But he is very good at saying the kinds of things...
Here it is: EXECUTIVE ORDER PROMOTING FREE SPEECH AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to guide the executive branch in formulating...
It looks like Donald Trump will issue some kind of order later today that attempts to weaken the so-called Johnson Amendment, a provision in the federal tax code that forbids churches and other religious organizations from opposing or supporting political candidates....
