From Americans United for Separation of Church and State (http://www.au.org):
In just over a week, well over 2,000 faith leaders have signed on to a letter urging Congress to not allow houses of worship to be used as political tools. Many of you have signed already – thank you so much!
If you haven’t yet had the chance, please sign today at https://www.faith-voices.org/the-letter. Please also share this email with your ministerial networks, with your seminary alumni groups, and with any other faith leaders you know so that our overall number can continue to grow!
As we have said from the beginning, this law – known as the Johnson Amendment – protects the integrity of houses of worship by ensuring they do not endorse or oppose political candidates.
For the last six decades, the Johnson Amendment has served as a valuable safeguard to prevent political parties and candidates seeking power to use houses of worship and other 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations as a tool for political gain. Repealing or weakening the law would do great damage to our integrity and would unnecessarily divide our congregations along political lines.
Under current law, houses of worship are free to engage in public debate on any issue, host candidate forums, hold voter registration drives, encourage people to vote, help transport people to the polls and even, with a few boundaries, lobby on specific legislation and invite candidates to speak. They simply can’t endorse or oppose candidates while benefiting from preferred tax-exempt status.
It is up to us in the faith community to ensure that this integrity remain intact. Please join faith leaders across the country in signing the letter urging Congress to not allow houses of worship to be used as political tools at https://www.faith-voices.org/the-letter.
Thank you for all you do to help protect religious freedom!
Leave a Reply