BJC Executive Director Amanda Tyler on the IRS’s Decision to Allow Churches to Endorse Candidates from the Pulpit
This shift “threatens to turn churches into PACs and undermine the core mission of religious communities.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Israel Igualate | [email protected]
The following is a statement from Amanda Tyler, executive director of BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty), on the IRS’s court filing regarding political endorsements by churches:
“By recasting pulpit endorsements as ‘a family discussion concerning candidates,’ the IRS upends decades of established guidance and would permit churches to take sides in electoral contests while retaining their tax-exempt status. That shift threatens to turn churches into PACs and undermine the core mission of religious communities, which will become targets for candidates from all parties.
The law has never prevented clergy from speaking out on moral issues or engaging their congregations in civic life. But green-lighting tax-exempt churches to endorse candidates from the pulpit creates new pressure on religious leaders to align with partisan candidates and risk division within congregations and entanglement with campaign agendas.
Polling consistently shows that the majority of Americans, including clergy, oppose pulpit endorsements. They know that sacred spaces should not become platforms for political candidates.
BJC will continue to advocate for clear, bright lines that protect both religious liberty and charitable mission. The Johnson Amendment has served those ends for nearly 70 years. Diluting it now threatens the very integrity it was designed to uphold.”
BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty) is an 89-year-old religiously based organization working to defend faith freedom for all and protect the institutional separation of church and state in the historic Baptist tradition. BJC is the home of the Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign.
