We’ll admit the Internal Revenue Service rule about politicking in houses of worship has been lightly enforced, but we’re afraid the tantamount endorsement of pulpit politicking by the IRS Monday will open an ugly closet door that never may be shut again.
The decision, we feel, could split churches, foster bitterness among attendees and with pastoral endorsers, and open other cans of worms when campaign signs appear on church lawns and candidates buy ads on church websites.
We hope individual churches will put down their sacred feet and declare that this particular house of worship will not become a party to dividing a congregation with partisan political speech.
The so-called Johnson Amendment banning campaigning by nonprofit organizations, named for then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, was introduced in 1954. Seventy years later, President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for its repeal.
Between then and now, the rule was only lightly policed, especially if mostly Democratic candidates trooped into large or influential Black churches in big cities to seek the congregation’s vote. More recently, Republicans have picked up the trick by engineering political movements for candidates and promoting them.