Preaching Politics

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Does a 70-year-old tax code provision known as the Johnson Amendment protect America’s houses of worship? Or unconstitutionally restrain them? Local church pastor Stephen Cook provides a view from the pulpit.

The Apostle Paul may have been the original church gossip. Allow me to explain.

“Gossip,” before it came to its current meaning, had a spiritual dimension to it. It is an Old English word, and the name that was given to baptismal sponsors. The gossip was the person who spoke on behalf of the child; the one who promised to provide spiritual guidance as the child grew in years.¹

Paul dedicated much of his ministry to providing spiritual guidance and nurture to congregations as they grew in the shadows of first-century Roman imperialism.

Take, for instance, the collection of Christians in Ephesus. “I have heard of your faith,” he tells them (Ephesians 1:15, ESV).² Word travels. Church people are prone to gossip, after all. And Paul gets wind of the faithfulness of the people he has provided spiritual guidance across the years.

So he writes to say thank you. Thank you for making good on the name that was given to you in your baptism. Thank you for making good on your pledge of allegiance to Jesus and no other. I have heard about you.

This is no small thing that the early Christians in Ephesus do. Christianity in Paul’s day faced a fierce competitor in the form of the state. Caesar declared himself a god. Good, upstanding citizens would take part in citywide worship services hailing Caesar as lord over their lives.

When the Christians in Ephesus refuse, though, this comes at great cost. It costs them respect. It costs them business relationships. It costs them family ties. For some, it costs them their lives.

Remember, confessing “Christ is Lord” sounds unpatriotic in the empire. This is saying that someone other than Caesar is at the top of the list.

Part of what Paul, the first church gossip, taught is that committing to Christ is pledging to keep your distance. It’s a promise to keep your distance from the kind of power wielded by the Caesars of our world who want nothing more than to have our allegiance. Faith, at its best, includes a dogged determination not to get too cozy with political personalities.

Though the separation of church and state is woven into the fabric of our nation’s founding story, we are living in a moment when some Christians are held captive by party loyalties that appear to be deeper than—or conflated with—faith priorities. There is something woefully wrong about that.

A growing number of religious leaders are calling for houses of worship to be able to explicitly endorse candidates for elected office.

Currently, under provisions of the IRS tax code in what is known as the Johnson Amendment, faith communities and other nonprofits risk losing their tax-exempt status if they endorse political candidates. The 70-year-old Johnson Amendment is aimed at keeping nonprofits from taking sides in partisan electoral contests.

During the first Trump administration, the Johnson Amendment came under attack. Now, as we begin a second Trump presidency, the National Religious Broadcasters Association—along with two Baptist churches and a faith-based nonprofit—have filed suit to challenge the Johnson Amendment and its protections.

As the pastor of a Baptist congregation myself, I cannot state strongly enough my opposition to any action that turns back the amendment’s protections. Its provisions help preserve the integrity and independence of places of worship in this country.

If these important rules take this protection away, that opens the door for houses of worship to receive contributions directed to particular political purposes or candidates.

In a time when many faith communities (my own included) are seeing diminished participation, including giving, is it too far-fetched to imagine a campaign or its surrogate political action committees with their deep pockets, offering up financial incentives for a church to endorse a candidate or policy position?

I am privileged to pastor what I lovingly refer to as a “purple place.” The members of our congregation are not of one mind on a whole host of issues, not least of which are political party alignments.

I love that we have people who vote “red” and “blue” but who read from the same Bible, sing from the same hymnal, and—by all means—worship the same God who created us all.

If political endorsements (and financial incentives for those) are on the line, I cannot imagine the kind of divisiveness this would foster, especially in a time that so many are already so astoundingly divided.

I cannot, in good conscience, keep silent.

I cannot keep silent because I refuse to let the name Jesus be reduced to any political party, platform, candidate, or agenda. I refuse.

I much prefer to have my name counted among those Christians Paul was thanking God for in Ephesus. These were the ones making a name for themselves because of their faith in Jesus and their love for their neighbors. These held to the truth that Jesus is “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:21, ESV).

As a minister privileged to preach, I have never felt restrained from saying, with God’s guidance, what I believe needs to be said in the face of whatever social situation or moral issue is at hand. I have never been limited in that.

I certainly do not need, nor do I want, any candidate, party, or its surrogates to prop that up. I am a minister of the gospel. My words will not be dictated by any political interest or personality.

To jeopardize the protections of the Johnson Amendment not only threatens to cross the line of political ideology and become idolatry, but more important, it compromises the character and integrity of our faith.

I believe we have a God-given responsibility to protect the protections of the Johnson Amendment and resist any efforts to do otherwise.

1 See Richard Lischer, Open Secrets: A Spiritual Journey Through a Country Church (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 95.

Article Author: Stephen Cook

Stephen Cook, Ph.D., is senior pastor at Second Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Before coming to Second in 2010, he served churches in North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia.

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