WILL TRUMP ABOLISH THE JOHNSON AMENDMENT AND MERGE CHURCH AND STATE?
The Johnson Amendment is a provision in the U.S. tax code, since 1954, that prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. Trump promised to destroy the Johnson Amendment. Congress is targeting it now. [Wikipedia]
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President Trump signs an executive order aimed at easing an IRS rule limiting political activity for religious organizations on May 4 in the Rose Garden of the White House. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Washington Post
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Lawmakers appear to be using a new spending bill to target a 1950s law that effectively bars Non-profits like churches from endorsing or opposing political candidates. Many pastors already ignore the so-called Johnson Amendment, and the IRS rarely investigates churches that violate a law that many clergy feel provides a chilling effect on their free speech. But some observers fear the language proposed in a new spending bill released this week would make it difficult for the IRS to investigate any claims of pulpit politicking or money flowing between houses of worship and political campaigns. During his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump targeted the Johnson Amendment as a big part of his pitch to religious conservatives, but because the amendment is law, repealing it would take an act of Congress. Instead of trying to repeal the amendment, legislators appear to be targeting it through a spending bill that says the IRS can’t use funds to investigate a church for breach of the Johnson Amendment without the sign-off of the IRS commissioner, who must report to Congress on the investigation.
On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee voted 28-24 to keep language from Section 116 in a funding bill. The language in the bill is clearly an effort to gut the Johnson Amendment as applied to churches, said Charles Haynes, a religious freedom expert at the Newseum. “At the very least, this provision puts a further chilling effect on any attempts by IRS staff to enforce the Johnson Amendment with respect to pulpit speech — the part of the amendment that conservative churches have most opposed,” Haynes said. “At its worst, the provision keeps IRS staff from doing its job to prevent charitable donations to flow to political campaigns.” Several religious groups this week sent a letter that voiced opposition to the measure to Rep. Tom Graves (R.-Ga.), chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on financial services and general government, and ranking Democrat Rep. Mike Quigley (Ill.).
“Weakening current law would allow politicians and others seeking political power to pressure churches for endorsements, dividing congregations and opening them up to the flow of secret money,” the letter from about 40 organizations states. The Episcopal Church, the American Jewish Committee, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty are among the groups listed on the letter. If this measure is enacted, Melissa Rogers, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, believes Congress could possibly block decisions on a church’s tax-exempt status. “If this measure is enacted, officeholders might find ways to subtly pressure houses of worship (by delaying grants of zoning permits, for example) until endorsements are made,” she said.
“That’s illegal, but it could be hard to stop if measures like this one are enacted.” Since taking office, President Trump has continued to oppose the Johnson Amendment. He focused on the law during his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in February. In April, he signed an executive order in front of several high-profile religious leaders, but many religious freedom advocates were disappointed in the order, saying it didn’t go far enough. [Trump wants to end the Johnson Amendment today. Here’s what you need to know] The Johnson Amendment prohibits any nonprofit group from endorsing candidates, but the provision in the spending bill focuses specifically on religious organizations.
“Provisions, like this one, that give religious organizations special tax benefits and privileges that are unavailable to other Nonprofits raise serious constitutional concerns,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. The First Amendment, he says, bars the government from favoring religious viewpoints when handing out tax subsidies and benefits. But Kim Colby, director of the Center for Law & Religious Freedom, says that the provision would make it clear that the IRS commissioner is the person who decides that a church should lose its tax-exempt status over political activity. “This type of accountability is needed given that it is very possible that administrations could pick and choose which churches to deny tax-exempt status based on whether a church is perceived to be supportive of the policies of a Democratic administration or a Republican administration,” Colby said.
Churches are able to engage in political activity like voter engagement and individual clergy endorsements, but the Johnson Amendment bars endorsements from the pulpit. Many pastors have ignored the law, and many have made an explicit effort to challenge the law under a campaign called Pulpit Freedom Sunday.
Thousands of churches have participated, and the IRS audited one but did not punish the church, according to the group that organizes the annual effort. In the 1990s, a church lost its tax-exempt status after taking out a full-page ad against then-President Bill Clinton in USA Today. But generally, the IRS does not investigate churches over politicking, something religious conservatives have been frustrated by since Lyndon B. Johnson introduced the legislation in the Senate in 1954, when he was a senator from Texas. Americans are almost evenly divided on whether churches and other houses of worship should express their views on social and political matters, according to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey. But 66 percent opposed the idea of churches endorsing candidates.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/06/30/trump-promised-to-destroy-the-johnson-amendment-congress-is-targeting-it-now/
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What is the Johnson Amendment?
Trump’s Religious-Liberty Executive Order Undermines Church/State Law
By Jason Le Miere On 5/4/17 at 11:51 AM
Newsweek
Trump President Donald Trump signs an executive order on education as he participates in a federalism event with governors at the White House on April 26. Carlos Barria/Reuters
U.S. Donald Trump Religious Freedom President Donald Trump marks his first National Prayer Day in the White House by signing an executive order on religious liberty that is expected to severely weaken enforcement of one of the country’s foremost regulations separating church and state. According to multiple reports, the order will instruct the Internal Revenue Service to use maximum discretion when enforcing legislation that prevents churches and other houses of worship from endorsing political candidates.
Known as the Johnson Amendment, the legislation states that tax-exempt organizations “are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of [or in opposition to] any candidate for elective public office.” The amendment to the tax code, which was signed in 1954 and is named for its primary sponsor, then-Senator Lyndon Johnson, has had limited impact. It does not prevent churches from engaging in all political activity, with nonpartisan voter education fully allowed. And while the IRS does not publish the list of organizations that have been stripped of their tax-exempt status under the legislation, only one such case is known.
Ahead of the 1992 election, the Branch Ministries church in New York took out a series of advertisements in major newspapers calling on Christians not to vote for Bill Clinton. The issue had largely been dormant until Trump raised it during his campaign. And he aired his views on it once again at the National Prayer Breakfast in February. “I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution,” he said. Around the same time, the Free Speech Fairness Act was introduced in the House and Senate by Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Representative Jody Hice (R-Ga.) and Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) with the aim of repealing the Johnson Amendment. Only an act of Congress can repeal the legislation. The move was supported by National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), an international association of Christian communicators.
“For too long, the infamous Johnson Amendment has dangled like a sword above the heads of pastors and ministry leaders, chilling their constitutional free speech rights,” NRB President and CEO Jerry Johnson said in a statement. “The Free Speech Fairness Act is a fair and reasonable remedy that will ensure such leaders know they can speak as they feel called without having to worry about the heavy hand of the IRS coming down on them.” But there has hardly been a clamor for the law to be repealed.
According to a Pew Research Center survey from 2016, 71 percent of Americans oppose allowing places of worship to endorse political candidates while maintaining their tax-exempt status. And not a single religious group favors eliminating the Johnson Amendment. Only 36 percent of white Evangelicals support enabling churches to support candidates. The figures are even lower for white mainline Protestants (23 percent), Catholics (25 percent) and black Protestants (19 percent). There has been widespread opposition from religious leaders too. In an open letter to Trump, 1,300 faith leaders opposed the executive order, including its possible weakening of the Johnson Amendment.
“The draft executive order flies in the face of that rich diversity by enshrining one religious perspective—on marriage, gender identity, health care and the role of houses of worship in partisan politics—into law, above all others,” the letter states.
“This is neither what religious freedom means in the eyes of the law nor what religion itself means to millions of Americans of faith. “The religious freedom of individuals and organizations, including that of clergy and houses of worship, is already protected by the First Amendment and federal law,” the letter says.
http://www.newsweek.com/johnson-amendment-trump-religious-liberty-594630
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Donald Trump says 'we can use peace' after Pope Francis gifts him symbolic olive tree Francis also gave the US president a copy of his 2015 letter on the importance of fighting man-made climate change. Trump responded: 'Well, I'll be reading them'
Philip Pullella, Steve Holland, Vatican City
Wednesday 24 May 2017 10:42 BST
The Independent US
Pope Francis urged Donald Mr Trump to be a peacemaker at their highly anticipated first meeting on Wednesday, and the US President promised he would not forget the Pontiff's message. Under clear blue skies, Mr Trump, who exchanged sharp words with the Pope during the US election campaign last year, received a tribute from the Swiss Guard in a Vatican courtyard when he arrived to meet the Pope. Mr Trump entered a small elevator taking him to the third floor of the Apostolic Palace and, after a long ceremonial walk past frescoed corridors, shook the pope's hand at the entrance to the private study, which the frugal pope uses only for official occasions.
Francis smiled faintly as he greeted Mr Trump outside the study and was not as gregarious as he sometimes is with visiting heads of state. Mr Trump, seeming subdued, said "it is a great honour." Even when the two were sitting at the Pope's desk in the presence of photographers and reporters, the Pope avoided the kind of small talk that usually occurs before the media is ushered out.
The two talked privately for about 30 minutes with translators. Both men looked far more relaxed at the end of the private meeting, with the Pope smiling and joking with Mr Trump and his wife Melania. Francis gave the president a small sculptured olive tree and told him through the interpreter that it symbolised peace. "It is my desire that you become an olive tree to construct peace," the Pope said, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. Mr Trump responded: "We can use peace." Francis also gave Mr Trump a signed copy of his 2017 peace message whose title is "Nonviolence - A Style of Politics for Peace," and a copy of his 2015 Encyclical Letter on the need to protect the environment from the effects of climate change. "Well, I'll be reading them," Mr Trump said.
24 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump arrives in a vehicle to Saint Damaso's Court for a private audience with Pope Francis in Vatican City /EPA 24 May 2017 Pope Francis walks past Ivanka Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the occasion of the private audience with President Donald Trump, at the Vatican /AP
24 May 2017 Pope Francis exchanges gifts with US President Donald Trump during a private audience at the Vatican /Getty Images
24 May 2017 Pope Francis meets US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania during a private audience at the Vatican /Reuters 24 May 2017 Pope Francis with US President Donald J. Trump /EPA 24 May 2017
Pope Francis gets into is car after meeting with US President Donald Trump /AP
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-pope-francis-peace-olive-tree-gift-vatican-city-us-president-visit-a7752981.html
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Pope-Trump Meeting Agenda: Climate Change, Terrorism
By Jeremy Diamond, CNN
Updated 1448 GMT May 24, 2017
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - MARCH 29: Pope Francis waves to the faithful as he leaves St. Peter's Square at the end of Palm Sunday Mass on March 29, 2015 in Vatican City, Vatican. On Palm Sunday Christians celebrate Jesus' arrival into Jerusalem, where he was put to death. It marks the official beginning of Holy Week during which Christians observe the death of Christ before celebrations begin on Easter. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
Things Donald Trump has said about the Pope
President Donald Trump Pope Francis Vatican gift exchange President Trump, Pope Francis exchange gifts Trump on foreign trip: We hit a home run A handout picture provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano shows Pope Francis (L) posing with US President Donald J. Trump on the occasion of their private audience, at the Vatican, 24 May 2017.
Trump is at the Vatican and in Italy on a two day visit, ahead of his participation in a NATO summit in Brussels on 25 May. EPA/OSSERVATORE ROMANO Trump meets with the Pope, Source: Spicer upset he could not meet Pope This is the first meeting for the two men. It lasted about a half an hour. Vatican City (CNN)After a highly anticipated meeting, Pope Francis appears to have left his mark on President Donald Trump. "Thank you. I won't forget what you said," Trump told Pope Francis, before leaving the Pope's private study after a half-hour private meeting.
Neither Trump nor the Pope revealed what their conversation entailed, but readouts from the White House and the Vatican highlighted terrorism, climate change and peace as agenda items covered. The Pope and President: Unpredictable pair finally meet Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, briefing reporters on Air Force One after the meeting, said terrorism and climate change came up. He said the Vatican's secretary of state raised climate change and encouraged Trump to remain in the Paris agreement.
Tillerson said the President "hasn't made a final decision," and likely will not until "after we get home." In a statement, the Vatican said only that the two men discussed "the promotion of peace in the world through political negotiation and inter-religious dialogue" and homed in on the need to protect Christians in the Middle East.
"He is something," Trump said of the Pope later in the day, during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. "We had a fantastic meeting. We're liking Italy very, very much and it was an honor to be with the Pope."
But while their words were sparse in front of the cameras, the two men sent signals about what they hoped to get out of the meeting – and the images they hoped to broadcast. The cameras and a clutch of reporters followed as the Pope welcomed Trump into his private study, where the mood appeared stiff at first -- as though the war of words the two men had previously exchanged hung over the room. While Trump flashed a wide grin, the Pope offered only a modest smile-- his demeanor, business-like.
The 2016 US presidential campaign saw the two men broadcast duelling messages to the world. As Trump promised to ban Syrian refugees, stoke anti-Muslim sentiment in the US and promise to build a wall on the US-Mexico border, the Pope spoke out. Without naming Trump by name, the Pope said in February 2016 that "a person who only thinks about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian." That prompted a fierce response from Trump, who fired back by calling Francis' judgmental comment "disgraceful." There was never an apology in either direction.
The Vatican highlighted in its statement that it hopes to continue providing "assistance to immigrants" as well as health care and education services in the US. As the two men allowed the cameras back into the room as their first in-person encounter wrapped on Tuesday, the mood appeared to have lightened. When the men exchanged gifts, the Pope smiled more broadly and easily.
"This is a gift for you. These are books from Martin Luther King. I think you will enjoy them," Trump told Francis, as he presented him with a first-edition set of King's writings, recalling the Pope's address to Congress in 2015 in which he quoted King. The Pope's gift left no questions about its symbolism, presenting Trump with an olive tree medal crafted by a Roman artist that the Pope said symbolizes peace. "We can use peace," Trump said. "I signed it personally for you," the Pope offered.
First lady Melania Trump, wearing a black lace dress and veil, also exchanged a few words with the Pope, who drew on her Slovenian heritage to make a personal connection. "What do you give him to eat, potizza?" the Pope asked the first lady, referring to a Slovenian treat. "Potizza," she said with a smile. Melania Trump: Why a head covering this time? The Pope blessed a Rosary for the First Lady, traded jokes with the first daughter, Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, and handed out tokens to the President's delegation.
After introducing several members of his administration and staff -- from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to his longtime communications aide Hope Hicks -- the President and first lady left for a private tour of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. Their tour guide was Barbara Jatta, the first woman director of the Vatican Museums.
Cable News Network. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/trump-pope-francis-vatican-city/index.html