Written by Don Byrd

If you haven’t already, take a moment to add your name to an important letter addressed to Congress asking them to keep the current law in place that protects houses of worship from candidates seeking endorsement. The Baptist Joint Committee is one of the sponsoring organizations of faith-voices.org – a campaign to defeat efforts to repeal IRS regulations prohibiting official candidate endorsements by 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations including houses of worship. 

If you are a teacher, lay leader, deacon, minister or have some other leadership role in your church, join the thousands of others who have already signed the faith-voices letter. This is an issue that is moving fast. You want to make your voice of faith heard! Visit faith-voices.org.

Don’t let opponents of this IRS protection fool you. Houses of worship remain free to engage in public debate on political issues, host candidate forums, encourage activism including voter registration. They simply cannot endorse candidates while benefiting from tax-exempt status. This safeguard helps prevent houses of worship from becoming arms of political campaigns or parties, or from being a conduit for bypassing campaign finance laws.

For more, read the BJC Executive Director Amanda Tyler’s column, “Politicize our charities and churches? No thanks” and read Tyler’s testimony before a House Subcommittee on this issue.