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Tag: Johnson Amendment

The Myth of Anti-Christian Bias

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anti-christian bias

Baby Christian Donald Trump — who spent Easter Sunday honoring the resurrected Jesus by golfing all day — and his feckless band of Evangelical and Roman Catholic gatekeepers, made it known that his administration will actively go after anti-Christian bias in the federal government. Question: is there anti-Christian bias in the government to start with? No evidence is provided for bias. Christians are absolutely FREE to worship God as they wish. Christian pastors are free to preach whatever they want from the pulpit. Outside of occasional skirmishes over building codes and the Johnson Amendment, Christian churches are left alone, free to preach superstition and nonsense.

Until the early 1960s, Christians ruled the cultural roost. Then came U.S. Supreme Court rulings that banned teacher-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in public schools. Many Christians were outraged over these court rulings, saying that their religion was being persecuted. This, of course, is laughable. Public schools are secular institutions. The separation of church and state requires schools to refrain from promoting sectarian religions. When schools permit teacher-led Bible readings and prayers, they are promoting a sectarian religion — namely Christianity. Over the past five decades, Evangelical parachurch organizations have found ways to weaken the wall separating church and state by establishing student-led programs such as Lifewise Academy and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Non-Christian organizations are permitted to offer programs to students, but so far, few do so, and those who do — such as the Satanic Temple — face pushback from Christians who do not understand the freedom of religion, free speech, and the separation of church and state. These objectors wrongly think that only Christianity should be taught in public schools. However, as things currently stand, if Christian groups are given access to school children, non-Christian groups must be given the same access.

Sadly, many school administrators, either out of ignorance or bias, support and promote Christian organizations, giving them preferential access to students. Groups such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation, American Atheists, American Humanist Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the American Civil Liberties Union spend countless hours writing letters to schools that think they can ignore the law, filing lawsuits against schools that ignore their demands. Most of the time, school districts back down and end discriminatory practices. If left unchecked, schools with Christian administrators would allow unfettered evangelization and indoctrination.

I live in rural northwest Ohio, home to God, guns, and Donald Trump. There are hundreds of Christian churches in a three-county area. I live in Ney, a town of about 356 people. There is at least seven churches within a few miles of my home. Countless local businesses have Christian kitsch hanging in their stores or tracts on their counters. Some businesses are decidedly evangelistic in their business model. One local barber claims his barber shop is a “ministry.” Get your hair cut by this barber, and you should expect to hear a sermon. Everywhere I look, I see Christianity. Maybe it is different in other places, but I don’t see anti-Christian bias anywhere.

As I type this post, I am listening to Matt Dillahunty’s Wednesday program on The Line. Matt talked about the difference between anti-Christian bias and anti-Christianity bias. Christians should be governed by the same laws as atheists. Government should be neutral when it comes to religion. Government = we the people. Not just people who meet certain political or religious standards, but all people. As citizens, however, we are free to have anti-Christianity bias. While I generally treat all religious people with respect (or with as much respect as they give me), when it comes to the organizations themselves, I am definitely anti-Christianity. I am anti-Evangelicalism, anti-Catholicism, anti-IFB church movement, and anti-any sect that causes harm to other people. I can respect my Evangelical neighbor while despising his religion at the same time. As a private person, I have the right to oppose, criticize, and condemn religious groups and their teachings. It is not anti-Christian bias if I speak out against particular sects. While it is often hard to separate the skunk from its smell — the Christian from his chosen sect — I do my best to distinguish between the two.

Donald Trump is using anti-Christian bias nonsense to curry favor with Evangelicals, Mormons, and conservative Roman Catholics. These followers of Jesus, however, are using the claim of anti-Christian bias to advance their theocratic agenda. Their goal is God rule; a nation state where Jesus rules supreme and the Bible (as interpreted by them) is the law of the land. Trump is a blowhard, but these theocratic Christians are an existential threat to our Republic. If left unchecked, the next thing we will be talking about is anti-non-Christian bias. And we already see this bias rearing its ugly head in government policies and statements made by Christian government officials.

Anti-Christian bias does not exist, but anti-religion bias does. As a secular state, the United States should not give any religion preferential treatment, but by setting up anti-Christian bias offices, the government is giving Christianity a preferred seat at the table. In a pluralistic society, every religion — including humanists, atheists, and pagans, to name a few — should be treated equally — not just Christians.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Democrats Ignore the Separation of Church and State When Convenient

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biden speech at church

Recently, Democratic President Joe Biden gave a political speech before a historically black congregation at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. You may remember, that in 2015 White supremacist and neo-Nazi Dylann Roof murdered nine Mother Emanuel members while they were gathered for prayer. Democrats have often used Black churches to give political speeches — contravening the separation of church and state and the Johnson Amendment.

Democrats have long objected to Republican political candidates giving speeches at Evangelical churches. Republicans show no regard for the rule of law. How dare the government tell them who can or can’t give speeches in churches? However, religious sects, parachurch organizations (who increasingly claim they are churches), and churches are tax-supported institutions — exempt from most taxes. U.S. law requires tax-exempt religious institutions to refrain from endorsing political candidates (though they can endorse/support issues). Choosing to do so anyway can lead to religious institutions losing their tax-exempt status. Though to be honest with you, I can’t remember a time when the IRS revoked a church’s tax exemption. A cursory Google search showed that IRS tax revocations since the inception of the Johnson Amendment can be counted on one hand. The IRS has stopped enforcing the law, allowing Democrats and Republicans alike to use churches for political campaigning. Pastors freely endorse candidates, knowing that nothing will happen if they do. (Personally, I support revoking tax exemption for all religious institutions; that churches who claim to be tax-exempt charitable institutions must prove it.)

Liberals love to scream about Republicans giving political speeches at Evangelical churches, yet are silent when Democrats do the same at liberal, mainline Black churches. Democrats are hypocrites if they refuse to call out liberal Black churches for doing the very same things as Evangelical churches do. One liberal writer said “Yes, Biden shouldn’t have given a political speech at Mother Emanuel, but, hey, the Republicans are doing it, so, so should we.”

As long as churches are tax-supported to the tune of billions of dollars a year, the IRS MUST enforce the Johnson Amendment and laws governing the separation of church and state. If the government is no longer willing to enforce the law, then it is time for Congress to put an end to the tax-exemption scam, taxing churches as the businesses they most certainly are. If congregations want to be tax-exempt, they must justify and prove their exempt charitable status. If churches cannot show that the majority of their income is spent on genuine charitable activities — and not just on programs and ministries that primarily exist to make fat sheep fatter — then they must pay taxes just like other businesses do. This means they must file annual income tax returns. (Churches are not required to file tax returns, including informational forms.)

If President Biden wants to speak to the members of Mother Emanuel, he should stand on the public sidewalk in front of the church and do so. On the sidewalk, Biden is free to say whatever he wants. However, once the President walks in the church’s doors, he and the church must abide by the law. That they don’t is disheartening and discredits attempts to hold Republicans accountable for their own violations of the separation of church and state and the Johnson Amendment.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

The Johnson Amendment: I Agree With Donald Trump

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501c3

In the 1950s, thanks to men such as there’s-a-red-under-every-bed Catholic Congressman Joseph McCarthy, American Christianity’s God found a home in the Pledge of Allegiance and on the back of our paper money. Under God was added to the Pledge (1954) and In God we Trust was added to American paper currency (1957). In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill into law that stated the national motto was In God we Trust. These blatantly unconstitutional acts are still with us today. In 1954, then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson proposed an amendment to U.S. tax code that would forbid churches and other non-profit, tax exempt institutions (501(c)(3)) from endorsing and campaigning for political candidates. This amendment is currently part of the tax code.

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain taxes.

Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited depending on the facts and circumstances. For example, certain voter education activities (including presenting public forums and publishing voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan manner do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity. In addition, other activities intended to encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, would not be prohibited political campaign activity if conducted in a non-partisan manner.

On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention.

The Internal Revenue Service provides resources to exempt organizations and the public to help them understand the prohibition. As part of its examination program, the IRS also monitors whether organizations are complying with the prohibition.

Churches and their pastors KNOW that U.S. law forbids directly endorsing or campaigning for political candidates. They also know that they are free to ignore the law because the IRS has shown that it has no appetite for going after churches and pastors who spend time and money whoring for political candidates. Evangelicals, sensing that the Obama Administration will not revoke their tax exemption, now want Congress to overturn the Johnson Amendment, giving churches and pastors the right to keep their blanket tax exemption AND endorse, work for, and financially support political candidates.

In recent days, Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump has said that, if elected, he would work to repeal the Johnson Amendment. I agree. I hope Congress will remove this amendment from the U.S. Tax Code. I also hope they will strip from the tax code the clergy housing allowance and any/all preferences churches and religious institutions currently receive. It is time for poor, helpless churches and their pastors to be cast out into the world to live by the same rules and laws that govern other businesses. Yes, other businesses, because churches are, above all else, profit-driven businesses. The charitable, public service parts of what churches do is minuscule. Churches exist, for the most part, to serve their customers — members and prospective members. If churches wish to remain tax-exempt, then the bulk of their income should be spent on charitable works. As it stands now, churches spend most of their money on buildings, salaries, benefits, and programs that only serve congregants.

If, as Donald Trump and many Evangelicals/Catholics want, the Johnson Amendment is overturned, churches and religious institutions should then be required to file business income tax returns and govern themselves according to current business law. This means churches and religious groups should also be required to pay sales tax, real estate tax, and every other tax businesses pay. Imagine the trillions of dollars that will make its way into local, state, and federal government coffers.

Churches and pastors should be careful about what they wish for. If churches are required to play by the same rules as businesses, I suspect that there would be a lot of church bankruptcies and mergers. Good news, to be sure, for those of us who are tired of churches receiving unconstitutional favoritism and financial support via tax exemptions, tuition payments, reduced postage charges, and other tax benefits that are only available to churches and religious institutions. But, bad news for those few churches and pastors who really do care about the social welfare of others.

Notes

Churches have always been permitted to support ballot initiatives and issues.

Pastors, outside of their official capacity, are free to endorse candidates. Unfortunately, this line has become blurred, and an increasing number of pastors and parachurch leaders now think they can endorse candidates without restriction. Realizing that they are breaking the law, these so-called men of God often add to their pronouncements, I say this as an individual, not in my official capacity as a pastor. And then they smile and wink.

Churches, by the way, do not have to file for 501(c)(3) tax status. They are, by default, considered tax exempt. Churches do not have to file any documents in order to be exempt.