Church supported Reneau
If Calvary Chapel emailed members on how to volunteer in church member Michele Reneau’s state House campaign last month, as has been widely stated, the church is clearly in violation of the Johnson amendment, an Internal Revenue Service rule that says nonprofit organizations cannot remain so if they involve themselves in a campaign for or against a candidate for public office.
The problem is that sanctions for such activity have been exceedingly rare and, when enforced, enforced unevenly.
The amendment, named after then-U.S. Sen. (later President) Lyndon Johnson, who offered it, was approved by Congress in 1954 as an addendum to the rules regarding 501(c)(3) organizations.
Reneau knocked off state Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, the five-term District 27 House member and finance committee chair, by 138 votes in the Aug. 1 primary and faces former one-term Hamilton County Board of Education member Kathy Lennon in the November general election.