Pastors Frequently Preach Politics. But the IRS Rarely Goes After Them

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Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2017

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

Last week, President Trump issued an executive order. From CT’s coverage: The order entitled “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty” professes to extend political speech protections for pastors and religious organizations, aiming to let them talk about politics without penalty. The executive order’s key feature: fulfilling a Trump campaign promise to end the Johnson Amendment, legislation that has discouraged non-profits, including churches, from endorsing political candidates for six decades. (Despite Trump’s claims that many wanted this relief, research from last year didn’t support this statement.) While most non-profits and churches have refrained from explicit endorsements, the IRS has largely taken a hands-off role in enforcing the law. “The IRS usually has not enforced the provision,” said Thomas Berg, a religious liberty scholar. So what keeps the government silent? While it makes sense that the government would want a check on “powerful, tax-exempt organizations using the benefit of tax-exemption to toss the election one way or another with big money,” the IRS would quickly run into First Amendment issues if it actually tried to stop churches, said Berg. Pastors could get in trouble for telling their congregations “I think really the only candidate who meets the moral test is this one,” said Berg. The problem is that “you can violate the provision with less explicit statements than that.” Berg joined assistant editor Morgan Lee and editor-in-chief Mark Galli to discuss how The Christian Century lost its tax-exempt status, the case for churches to pay taxes, and the best way for pastors to shepherd their congregation on the issue of politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.0	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion.
0:14.5	Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.
0:27.2	Music Michael Del Rosario at Apologeticsguy.com. You're listening to Quick to Listen.
0:29.2	Each week we go beyond hashtags and hot takes to discuss a major cultural event.
0:34.4	I'm rejoined this week by Mark Alley.
0:36.2	Hey, Mark.
0:36.6	Hey, good to be back. Good to be back. If only you were
0:39.2	going to be here next week, but you're not. No. Suffering for the company in San Diego. So there you go.
0:45.2	You and I have different definitions of suffering, clearly. Who is joining us today? Joining us today is
0:50.8	Thomas Berg. He's the James Obistar Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University
0:57.5	of St. Thomas in Minnesota, in the law school particularly. Is that correct? That's right. Yeah.
1:02.1	He is among the nation's leading scholars in law and religion, has written approximately 50 book
1:07.0	chapters and journal articles and dozens of op-eds and shorter pieces on religious freedom,
1:11.8	constitutional law, the role of religion and law, politics and society.
1:15.7	His work has been cited several times by the U.S. Supreme Court and Federal Courts of Appeals.
1:20.7	He is the author of several books, including a leading case book, Religion and the Constitution,
1:25.6	with Michael McConnell and John Garvey, and most
1:28.5	interesting to me, the state and religion in a nutshell. Anybody who can write a book about
1:33.2	the state and religion in a nutshell must be pretty sharp, so I'm glad you did that, Thomas.
1:38.4	Thank you. Well, it's a nutshell of a little over 300 pages. Oh, there you go. I don't know.
1:43.2	I don't know that you're stretching the concept of nutshell there, but...
	...

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