Preserving American Values

In order to receive the tax benefits of being recognized as a nonprofit organization by the IRS, one of the restrictions required by the Internal Revenue Code is that such 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.

This prohibition in the past has been applied to nonprofit religious organizations. So for example, a minister could not deliver a sermon from his pulpit endorsing a particular candidate.  He or she could, however, encourage people to vote or the church/synagogue/mosque could engage in other non-partisan election activities.  The minister could also, in a different context apart from his congregation, endorse a candidate.

Now the IRS has just issued a ruling that ministers may from the pulpit endorse candidates.  The reasoning for the ruling is that the minister would not be campaigning but rather having “a family discussion concerning candidates.”  It was a private matter.

The duplicitous nature of this ruling is amazing—although considering that we’re dealing with a Trump controlled IRS I guess it isn’t amazing but par for the course.  The minister in question in the ruling was not having a discussion about the various candidates but endorsed a particular candidate.  That is not non-partisan.  It flies in the face of the prohibition against participating or intervening in a political campaign.

Numerous commentators have worried that this ruling would result in PACs starting to donate money to churches to influence pastors to endorse their candidate.  Individual could donate money for this purpose and even receive a tax deduction for the “charitable” donation.

My concern is that, knowing who made the decision in this ruling, and knowing the fervent nature of Evangelical and many Catholic churches for Trump’s positions, the intent of the ruling was to increase the vote for MAGA candidates, especially in primaries. This could have a real impact on election outcomes.