Christian Ministries Will Rue the Day the Johnson Amendment Is Repealed

 By Warren Cole Smith - Posted at MinistryWatch:

Published July 21, 2025

In a recent court filing, the IRS said the-so called Johnson Amendment, which bars all nonprofits from being involved in political campaigns, should not apply to political speech during religious services.

The IRS decision still awaits a judge’s approval, but – if it comes – it will be a major victory for the Trump Administration and the fulfillment of a promise to at least one segment of his political base. Trump made the repeal of the Johnson Amendment an important part of his stump speech to religious groups at least since 2016. I was in a meeting in Trump Tower that year with Trump and about forty other evangelical leaders. In that meeting, Trump seemed tentative about many of the issues that energized the people in his conference room that day. But about the Johnson Amendment, he was abundantly clear. “I’m going to do that for you,” he said.

There is, however, another perspective. The perspective that repeal of the Johnson Amendment is a bad idea and will result in bad actors using religious groups as a mere front for political activism. It is a perspective I share.

Now, before you get the wrong idea, I should immediately say that I am not a fan of the government telling churches or ministries what to say or do or, more specifically in this case, what not to say or do.

But the Johnson Amendment was a gift to the church, and we will rue the day this rule changed.

For one thing, the vast majority of churches do not even want to violate the Johnson Amendment. The Johnson Amendment has zero impact on their behaviors, speech, or freedom of conscience. Most Christian organizations, even conservative ones, understood that their primary mission was not politics, but the Gospel. For these organizations, the Johnson Amendment provided a guardrail for churches. It made it easy to focus on the unchanging truth of the Gospel and not on the ebb and flow of political events.

Continue here...