The Trump administration decreed Monday that churches can endorse political candidates, carving out a special exemption from a legal ban on nonprofit organizations politicking with tax-exempt dollars.
The action, announced in an IRS legal filing, is a major gift to Trump’s Christian nationalist and dominionist supporters, who celebrated the new policy. Religious-right groups are likely to use the ruling to mobilize grassroots pressure on conservative pastors who have so far resisted turning their churches into de facto political campaign operations.
Intercessors for America, a network of ardently pro-Trump spiritual warriors, was a plaintiff in the case the IRS used to announce the new policy via a proposed consent judgement, along with the National Religious Broadcasters and a couple of churches.
Intercessors for America, a network of ardently pro-Trump spiritual warriors, was a plaintiff in the case the IRS used to announce the new policy via a proposed consent judgement, along with the National Religious Broadcasters and a couple of churches.
The filing claims that endorsing politicians from the pulpit does not count as participating in or intervening in a political campaign, which tax-exempt nonprofits are prohibited from doing. It’s not the only tortured reasoning in the IRS memo.
The New York Times reported.
The agency said that if a house of worship endorsed a candidate to its congregants, the I.R.S. would view that not as campaigning but as a private matter, like ‘a family discussion concerning candidates.’
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