“IRS Set Churches Free to Endorse Political Candidates” This is Something to Think About 07.09.25
Something to Think About
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“IRS Set Churches Free to Endorse Political Candidates”
Bill Bunkley’s “This Is Something to Think About”
Air Date Wednesday, July 9, 2025
The IRS has acknowledged it will permit churches to endorse candidates for political office without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status.
In a defensive political move 1954 to silence opposition to his re-election, Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson influenced the IRS to adopt a provision in the tax code known as the Johnson Amendment, stating churches and other non-profit organizations could lose their tax-exempt status if they participate in, or intervene in “any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.
Credit goes to the National Religious Broadcasters and a host of churches that filed suit against the IRS over the rule, successfully arguing that the rule infringed on their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion.
Pastors are now free to speak about political candidates.
Bill Bunkley is a 19-year veteran Salem Media talk show host based in Tampa. The Bill Bunkley Show airs weekdays from 3 to 6 pm across central Florida. Bill is also President of the Florida Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the legislative consultant to the Florida Baptist State Convention (Southern Baptist Convention Churches), among other churches and entities. He has served as the legislative consultant to the Florida Baptist State Convention for the last 29 years at the state capitol in Tallahassee. By the Grace of his Lord Jesus, he is today a cancer survivor diagnosed in 2018 with AML Leukemia, having successfully undergone a bone marrow transplant that same year. His wife is Toni, son is Zac, and they attend Idlewild Baptist Church.
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