As IRS Allows Churches to Endorse Candidates, Texas Pastors May Gain Political Power — ProPublica

Texas reporter Nate Shatslin recently stood before the meeting of conservative activists near Fort -Uerto, rethinking the legislative victories and viewing what would happen next. However, on this day he acted not only as a legislator but also a pastor.

During the week earlier, the domestic income service decided to allow religious leaders to approve political candidates from the pulpit, effectively increasing the provision over the decades of tax legislation that prohibits such activities. SCHATZLINE, the long -standing pastor of the Mercy Culture Church in Fort -Vorte, was excited. The IRS confirmed that “what we already knew,” he said at the meeting on July 14: the government could not prevent the Church by civil settlement.

“There is absolutely no reason for a politician to be more voice in social issues than your pastor, and so I need pastors to get up,” said Shatslin crowd consisting of TRUE Texas Project members, the organization based A powerful political network push legislators to Accept your rigid confrontation of immigration and LGBTQ+Rights, as well as to promote the Conservative Education Policy.

“We need pastors to be bold.”

For decades, pastors, as he had fought for the right to speak on political issues and actively approve candidates as religious leaders. Now, before the judge weigh if the IRS policy will change, some religious leaders are already calling on the congregations to demand more political participation in their churches.

While the tax agency’s position is extending to churches across the country, Texas is expected to be where it will be important, said Ryan Berge, a political and religious expert at the University of Washington at St. Louis.

More than 200 megarrhags Call Texas home. In the Lone Star state, the shepherds seem to have a greater profile in social, political and religious discussions. “Texas will become an epicenter for checking all these ideas,” he said.

In the following interview, Fort Worth Schatzline said as much. A commercial organization that was previously created to help select candidates for a political post, works with the National Advisory Board of Vera Donald Trump to expand this work and mobilize churches and shepherds to get their more civil, state representative.

The White House officials and the Advisory Council did not respond to a comment request.

While Shetsline said the pastors could choose not to vote about candidates, congregations such as it may feel different. “Especially our conservatives across America, they expect their pastor to speak about the truth,” he said.

For over 70 years, churches and other religious institutes in the United States have been ordered to avoid “any political activity” or risk losing the status exempt from taxes. This federal measure, Johnson’s amendmentIt was added to the IRS tax law in 1954 and named after its author Lyndon B. Johnson, the then Texas Congress.

In August 2024, in the last months of Biden administration, the Association of Religious Broadcasters and two Churches of East Texas sued the IRS, claiming that Johnson’s amendment violated their freedom of expression and religion.

Almost a year later, the IRS, which is now under Trump, and the plaintiffs submitted the proposed joint settlement stated in the agreement, that when the worship chamber speaks in its congregation about the “electoral policy considered through the lens of religious faith”, it does not participate or interfere with the political campaign and therefore does not violate the amendment. The court must now consider its proposal.

IRS representatives did not answer the request to comment on what caused his decision.

The biggest consequence of the proposed legal agreement is to push for pastors to be “more political than they want,” said Berge, a former pastor Baptist, who is now a professor at the John K. Danfort Center’s practice.

“It all comes down to 5% of people on each side of the political spectrum, which are the loudest and trying to involve you in their passion,” Berge said, adding that the parishioners may threaten to leave the church if their pastor does not talk about their political positions.

Previous PROPUBLICA and Texas Tribune Investigation Undergraduate 20 examples Churches that seemingly violated Johnson’s amendment. It was more than what IRS has been investigated for the previous decade. Thirteen of these congregations were located in the Northern Texas area, including the Culture of Mercy, where a pastor was ordained in 2024.

The tax agency has largely refused to implement the amendment, previously reported.

For example, in the mid-2000s IRS investigated just over 100 churches, including 80 for approval of candidates From the pulpit, after the appeal with the increase in the allegations of the political activity of the church leading to the 2004 presidential election. Representatives of the agency did not withdraw the status released from the taxation of any churches instead of sending warnings.

Following the submission of the proposed settlement in July, the Fort -Uort report identified at least three churches in Texas, whose leaders have openly appreciated the IRS decision, including the Culture of Mercy and the Church of Sand -Springs, one of the participants of the lawsuit that caused the IRS changes.

The day after the court’s submission, the Mercy Culture Church posted a screenshot on Instagram and Facebook New York Times article The detail of the news and noting that “the church’s time is loud!”

“We will not remain silent on righteousness, life, freedom or leadership. We do not support the party – we stand for the kingdom!” The message is read.

In Athens, less than 100 miles south of the Dallas-Fly-Worth District, Senior Pastor Sand-Springs Eric Graham told Congrugans during the Bible study on July 9 that the IRS resolution is “encouraging”.

He told the parishioners during the teaching, which was live on Facebook and considered the editorial office that the Church was not going to comment on the IRS court until the final decision of the judge approved or refused the proposed settlement.

“Powerful tool”

Megachurches with live services on the Internet or by broadcasting “can become a powerful tool for promoting political candidates,” said David Brockman, a non -resident scientist at the State Policy Institute Rice and the University of Texas and the Southern Methodist University.

In Northern Texas, the first Baptist Dallas attracts about 16,000 members to personally visit the worship or through several methods of streaming, according to the church site. Non -monological ecclesiastical culture of mercy attracts the church Thousands of believers Washington Post reports in its flagship location in Fort -Vorte. From the moment of its creation, the church has formed other campuses in East -Worth, Dallas, Vako and Austin.

Leading pastor of the first Baptist Dallas Robert Jeffres, an avid Trump supporter, thanked the President on Facebook for the recent Johnson IRS amendments.

“It would never have happened without the strong leadership of our great President Donald Trump! Honor to thank him personally in the Oval Cabinet,” Jeffres wrote in his report on July 9. “The government does not have a business that regulates what is saying in cellulose!”

Service New Religion reported this spring The fact that Jeffres was one of the many pastors who told Trump during Easter service in April that the IRS investigated its churches on its political approval. said Jeffres The New York Times He believed that the conversation was a “turning point”, in the new interpretation of the Johnson’s IRS amendments that Trump himself promised to do during his 2016 presidential campaign.

He did not respond to requests from the Fort Worth report for comments. The Church’s press -secretary said he was outside the city.

Different religious traditions can respond to policy changes in different ways, said Matthew Wilson, a professor of religious and politics at the Southern Methodist University.

A Conference of American Catholic Bishops and A Joint Methodist ChurchFor example, they both announced that they would remain in order not to approve and resist political candidates. Freedom Fund from religion, a national non -profit organization that advocates division between the church and the state, announced On July 30, he joins others, condemning the efforts to ignore or weaken Johnson’s amendment.

While some religious leaders may be reluctant to participate in politics, the white conservative churches that usually support the candidates in the Republicans, and the African American churches who historically prefer the Democrats, “came to the Johnson correction line -” unless they cross it, “said Wilson.

“Those religious organizations have long spoken more accurately, and this (the IRS decision) releases them even more to do it,” he said.

Messfield Mayor Michael Evans, who was a pastor in Baptist Church Bethlehem for 30 years, in the southeast Fort -Uort, said he did not plan to approve candidates for the congregation, as it can only lead to a greater division. In its predominantly African American Church, congregations come from both ends of the political spectrum, he said.

While candidates outlined by political parties and their philosophy may change, Evans said: “The Word of God remains the same.”

The Church of the Culture of Mercy is already well on the path of exerting its political influence. SCHATZLINE launched its non -profit organization on freedom and justice in 2021 after the elder church unsuccessfully ran to become Mayor Fort -Uort. According to her site.

A commercial organization has created an online program called “University of Company” designed to prepare people belief on how to run for office. In accordance with its constituencies “Freedom”, the organization “Summary” influenced the decisions of local school councils and city councils to lead Christian values in the Tarrant District ” site.

For freedom and justice, 48 candidates have been supported since its creation. One was SCHATZLINE.