President Trump vowed Thursday to overturn a law restricting political speech by churches, a potentially huge victory for the religious right and a gesture to his political base.
Mr. Trump said his administration would “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches from engaging in political activity at the risk of losing their tax-exempt status.
The people in the church have their right to individual speech. The Church, as a tax exempt religious organization, is free as well to get involved in politics if they surrender that tax exempt status.Churches are made up of people all of whom have freedom of speech just like other people. Put your big boy pants on. A church is just a group of people that follow a specific phylosophy for life. Not only that but they all vote also.
Churches are made up of people all of whom have freedom of speech just like other people. Put your big boy pants on. A church is just a group of people that follow a specific phylosophy for life. Not only that but they all vote also.
Churches are made up of people all of whom have freedom of speech just like other people. Put your big boy pants on. A church is just a group of people that follow a specific phylosophy for life. Not only that but they all vote also.
Trump will do like he did for the ban, carve out an exception for ChristiansGreat, maybe now we can get organized agnostics and organized atheists into their own, tax-exempt, megapowerful "church" (something other than Scientology!)
The people in the church have their right to individual speech. The Church, as a tax exempt religious organization, is free as well to get involved in politics if they surrender that tax exempt status.
You realize the President attended a national prayer breakfast this morning right? No one is complaining about that either. It's when the church itself becomes activist and, yes, that should translate to ALL religious organizations.You need to include black churches that people like Hillary and Obama have used for generations as mouthpieces. Never understood "You can't do it but come to our meeting and discuss our support for ourselves!" Nope.
IMO all churches need to keep themselves out of politics and the state have a hands off regarding religion. It works both ways.
You realize the President attended a national prayer breakfast this morning right? No one is complaining about that either. It's when the church itself becomes activist and, yes, that should translate to ALL religious organizations.
It was the great Thomas Jefferson who said, the God who gave us life, gave us liberty. Jefferson asked, can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God. Among those freedoms is the right to worship according to our own beliefs. That is why I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution. I will do that, remember.
Trump manages to quote Jefferson then promise to let religious institutions once again politic from the pulpits and use lobbyists to directly influence government while remaining tax exempt, in the same paragraph.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...r-breakfast/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.ecfa709f23c9
Did a bit of looking into the background of taxes, politics and churches and it was LBJ who was responsible in bring it about. I'd be worried that Trump could simply reverse Johnson's order, but in fact it was sponsored legislation that created our present way of doing things.
Trump therefore has to do this by legislative means and Republicans are more likely to go with this as a group, it only needs a few defectors to block. I didn't see it noted but a position was almost blocked with the help of only two Republicans. One more and that would have ended that nominee.
In short this promise may not be kept.
Did a bit of looking into the background of taxes, politics and churches and it was LBJ who was responsible in bring it about. I'd be worried that Trump could simply reverse Johnson's order, but in fact it was sponsored legislation that created our present way of doing things.
Trump therefore has to do this by legislative means and Republicans are more likely to go with this as a group, it only needs a few defectors to block. I didn't see it noted but a position was almost blocked with the help of only two Republicans. One more and that would have ended that nominee.
In short this promise may not be kept.
Please. If the IRS & the DoJ won't enforce the law then Falwell & Co can say anything they want from the pulpit on national TV & get away with it.
It's like marijuana legalization.
Trump said he’ll ‘totally destroy’ the Johnson Amendment.
.....
What the Johnson Amendment is: It’s named for Lyndon B. Johnson, who introduced it in the Senate in 1954, nine years before he became president. It bans all tax-exempt nonprofits — which includes churches and other houses of worship, as well as charities — from “directly or indirectly” participating in any political candidate’s campaign.
What Trump has against it: Trump presents this ban on participating in politicking as a restriction on the freedom of faith groups to put their religion in action, if their religion calls on them to campaign for a candidate. At Thursday’s prayer breakfast, Trump said that his reason for opposing the Johnson Amendment is that it impinges on the American “right to worship according to our own beliefs” — apparently describing campaign participation as a form of worship.
This is Trump’s first time bringing up the subject as president, but it’s a vow he has made several times before.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...nd-why-do-people-care/?utm_term=.67e50e113626
The restriction was championed by LBJ in 1954 when Johnson was a U.S. senator running for re-election. A conservative nonprofit group that wanted to limit the treaty-making ability of the president produced material that called for electing his primary opponent, millionaire rancher-oilman Dudley Dougherty, and defeating Johnson. There was no church involved.
Johnson, then Democratic minority leader, responded by introducing an amendment to Section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code dealing with tax-exempt charitable organizations, including groups organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literacy and educational purposes, or to prevent cruelty to children or animals. It said, in effect, that if you want to be absolved from paying taxes, you couldn't be involved in partisan politics.
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"The logical argument favoring such an amendment is that those corporations qualifying for the section 501(c)(3) tax subsidy should not be permitted to directly or indirectly use that subsidy to support candidates for office," said Michael Hone in the Case Western article.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...-trump-correct-lyndon-johnson-passed-legisla/