In melding faith and politics, churches follow do's and don'ts this election season
Published in News & Features
Don’t be surprised as Election Day fast approaches to see many signs outside Florida churches telling you to vote a certain way.
Mixing faith and politics, churches have long weighed in on matters affecting communities in the state and across the U.S., and their efforts are underway this year with the issue of abortion on Florida’s ballot.
One example is at Fort Lauderdale’s Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, a landmark at 5555 N. Federal Highway that’s easily recognized by its spire that is 30 stories high. Just outside the church, two large signs tell drivers-by, in all capital letters, to “Vote No Amendment 4,” the abortion-rights measure. “Vote to protect life.”
In recent days, that led a South Florida Sun Sentinel reader who drives past the signs to question if churches — typically having tax-exempt status — are allowed to take such political stances.
The answer, legal and political observers say, is yes: Churches can use signs to have a say on amendments. The question touches on the broader issue of the myriad considerations for churches, which must abide by a string of do’s and don’ts during elections.
Legal experts say a church’s amendment campaigning already is allowed by federal law. On the horizon could be a legal decision on whether churches and nonprofits would be allowed to endorse candidates.
Legal history
The Johnson Amendment — named for President Lyndon B. Johnson, who authored the amendment when he was still a Texas senator — was passed in 1954 and included in the Internal Revenue Code. It prohibits nonprofits, such as charities and churches, from participating in any political campaign on behalf or in opposition to any candidate for public office. An organization that violates the prohibition could lose their tax-exempt status and face a civil injunction.
But the law does not address the issue of politicking for amendments.
IRS laws are “very specific about candidates, not issues,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida. Churches “can advocate for or against issues.”
Because the newest panel of U.S. Supreme Court justices “seem very pro-religion … even if someone (a private citizen) were to try to file a lawsuit, it’s unlikely that it would get much traction over the long run in the federal courts,” he said.
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Bob Jarvis, a professor with Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad College of Law, agreed. “Nonprofits and churches are allowed to engage in issue advocacy, as opposed to advocating for a person.”
The current laws allow candidates to speak at churches, too. “That’s how you see Kamala Harris go to churches,” Jarvis said. “That’s OK. But they could not put a sign out saying, ‘This church supports Donald Trump, this church supports Kamala Harris.’ ”
Ripe for a legal challenge?
But Jarvis said some experts believe the Johnson Amendment could be considered a violation of the First Amendment’s right to free speech, and in today’s landscape, “if nonprofits were ever to challenge, they would win.”
He bases that on a 2010 Supreme Court case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a decision that reversed campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections.
In the court’s opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that limiting “independent political spending” from corporations and other groups violates the First Amendment right to free speech.
And the IRS today doesn’t tend to enforce its own rules about nonprofits campaigning, experts said.
In part, it might “not be worth the bad press,” and seen as taking on a church, Jarvis said. But it’s also likely that’s because they are saying, “We’re not sure we’re going to win this thing.'”
In 2022, The Texas Tribune co-published an investigation with ProPublica that found that while federal law bars churches from directly involving themselves in political campaigns, the IRS has “largely abdicated its enforcement responsibilities as churches have become more brazen about publicly backing candidates.”
In the first 40 years after the law was passed, the IRS stripped a handful of religious nonprofits of their tax-exempt status, the news organizations reported. None were churches, the investigation found.
But in 1992, Branch Ministries in New York ran two full-page ads in USA Today and The Washington Times urging voters to reject then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, a Democrat, in his challenge to Republican President George H.W. Bush. Clinton, the ads said, was “openly promoting policies that are in rebellion to God’s laws.”
The IRS revoked the church’s tax-exempt status, leading to a long legal battle that ended with a U.S. appeals court siding with the federal agency.
The case remains the only publicly known example of the IRS revoking the tax-exempt status of a church because of its political activity, Texas Tribune and ProPublica reported.
In 2017, President Donald Trump promised he would “totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.”
He signed an executive order that directs the executive branch to limit its enforcement of the law, but eliminating the Johnson Amendment would require congressional or judicial action.
Churches’ participation
Churches are participating in various ways in this year’s elections.
Church groups have helped with contributions. This summer, the Orlando Sentinel reported, Catholic groups had donated about $234,000 to Florida Voters Against Extremism, a political action committee opposing Amendment 4, and urged parishioners to reject the proposal.
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, the church’s lobbying arm, supported the anti-abortion campaign, both financially and practically. It offered free political consulting services valued at nearly $108,000 to the campaign and used its website to share anti-abortion resources with parishes.
And the bishops have distributed cards that include a “prayer to defeat Florida’s abortion amendment.”
Aside from specifying any ballot measure, some churches have urged people to just get out and vote.
Souls to the Polls, an early voting initiative, has seen churches in African American communities mobilizing Black voters, with weekend events being held in Florida.
Placing signs outside church
For its part, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church felt it was important to voice its position on Amendment 4.
Andrew Nichols, the executive director of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, said in an email statement that the church decided to get involved because “we believe that human life is sacred, from the moment of conception. We believe that it is our moral obligation to educate Christians about what the Bible says about the issues of our day.
“We believe that Christians should support candidates and policies that best reflect their religious convictions.”
On Amendment 4, voters will weigh in whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution. The question comes after Gov. Ron DeSantis and lawmakers backed preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
A Florida Atlantic University poll released Tuesday found that the proposed amendment is close to passage: Amendment 4 has the support of 58% of Florida voters, just short of the 60% threshold that the state requires for passage of a constitutional amendment.
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