Trump targets tax law on church campaigning

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump pledged to repeal a decades-old provision of tax law that prevents pastors from endorsing candidates, recommitting to a campaign promise during a speech at his first National Prayer Breakfast.

"I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and openly without fear of retribution," Trump said during the event, referring to a 1954 measure pushed by Lyndon B. Johnson when he was a senator. "I will do that, remember."

Trump said his reason for opposing the Johnson Amendment is that it impinges on the American "right to worship according to our own beliefs."

Religious leaders have long complained that the Johnson Amendment restricts their free speech. Abolishing the amendment would require action by Congress, although Trump could direct the Internal Revenue Service to disregard the rule.

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The tax code does allow a wide range of political activity by houses of worship, including speaking out on social issues and organizing congregants to vote. But churches cannot endorse candidates or engage in partisan advocacy.

The president made no mention at the prayer breakfast of other steps he may take, saying only that religious freedom is a "sacred right."

Trump's address to faith leaders came as his administration cracks down on U.S. policy on admitting refugees and after Trump nominated a justice for the Supreme Court, Appeals Court Judge Neil Gorsuch, that he has promised is opposed to abortion.

Gorsuch serves on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where he sided with Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor when they raised religious objections to the requirement of President Barack Obama's administration that employers provide employee health insurance that includes contraceptives.

Trump used his opening comments to joke about the politics of the Senate chaplain.

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"I don't even know if you're Democrat or if you're Republican, but I'm appointing you for another year," Trump said to the chaplain, Barry Black, after he delivered an opening address. "The hell with it."

Members of the Senate, not the president, select their chaplain.

Trump also defended his recent executive order on immigration, decrying "generous" immigration policies and arguing that there are people who seek to enter the country "for the purpose of spreading violence or oppressing other people based upon their faith." He pledged to take more immigration action in the name of religious liberty.

"In the coming days we will develop a system to help ensure that those admitted into our country fully embrace our values of religious and personal liberty and that they reject any form of oppression and discrimination," Trump said.

Gay- and transgender-rights groups have been anxious that the president could use his executive powers to curb legal advances they have achieved. Emily Hecht-McGowan, chief policy officer for the Family Equality Council, said she was "anticipating more to come," noting that some draft documents have been circulating, suggesting plans for a more sweeping order.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday that "there's nothing new on that front."

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that the president would leave intact a 2014 executive order that protects workers for federal contractors from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, saying in a statement that Trump "continues to be respectful and supportive of L.G.B.T.Q. [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer] rights, just as he was throughout the election."

Religious conservatives, who saw a series of defeats on same-sex marriage, abortion and other issues under Obama, have been bolstered by Trump's election. In a letter last year to Roman Catholics, Trump pledged, "I will defend your religious liberties and the right to fully and freely practice your religion, as individuals, business owners and academic institutions."

Tax-exempt status

The prayer breakfast was the first time as president that Trump has mentioned the Johnson Amendment, but it's a pledge that he has made several times before.

Speaking to hundreds of conservative Christian faith leaders who met with him in June, Trump made his opposition to the Johnson Amendment a key point of his speech. "I think maybe that will be my greatest contribution to Christianity -- and other religions -- is to allow you, when you talk religious liberty, to go and speak openly, and if you like somebody or want somebody to represent you, you should have the right to do it," he said. "You don't have any religious freedom, if you think about it."

He included it in his acceptance speech when he won the Republican presidential nomination as well, after he thanked evangelical Christians. "They have so much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits. The amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views," Trump said.

Most of the discussion of the Johnson Amendment, whether coming from Trump or from pastors, focuses on whether clergymen put their churches' tax-exempt status at risk when they endorse their favorite candidates from the pulpit.

The IRS rarely punishes churches for political statements. For several years, more than 2,000 pastors have joined what they call "Pulpit Freedom Sunday" to test the ban by speaking their political views in their sermons -- and the IRS has investigated only once and did not punish in that case, according to the conservative organization that organizes the annual effort.

"Most people's concern is if you allow churches to freely allow political activity -- churches, synagogues, temples, whatever the religious organization -- now what you've done is you've turned those into super PACs," said David Herzig, a Valparaiso University tax law professor.

Churches would be freed to use their budgets to support campaigning -- and citizens would get a tax deduction for contributing to the church, which would still be a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Also, Herzig pointed out, nonprofits like churches aren't required to make the same public disclosures as political action committees, so political funding theoretically could become much less transparent if campaign funding were funneled through churches.

Many religious groups like their nonpolitical status just fine the way it is. After Trump spoke Thursday morning, for instance, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty quickly put out a statement saying that repealing the Johnson Amendment would not further the religious liberty that they stand for.

"Politicizing churches does them no favors. The promised repeal is an attack on the integrity of both our charitable organizations and campaign finance system. Inviting churches to intervene in campaigns with tax-deductible offerings would fundamentally change our houses of worship. It would usher our partisan divisions into the pews and harm the church's ability to provide refuge," the organization said.

Information for this article was contributed by Toluse Olorunnipa and Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News; by Catherine Lucey of The Associated Press; and by Julie Zauzmer of The Washington Post.

A Section on 02/03/2017