IRS says churches can endorse political candidates

Here’s the story – https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/churches-can-endorse-political-candidates-congregations-irs-says-2025-07-08/

LOL. Of course IRS decided that some churches could endorse politicians to their congregants in worship. Of course they did. Would we expect anything less in this administration?

I mean we are already following conspiracy theories when it comes to vaccinations. We fight against schools because they are supposedly too “woke” for teaching science and history. We get ourselves involved in wars we have no business being in. We rename military bases back to their Confederate names, with a cute twist of finding some random military personnel to say that’s who we are naming them after instead. We cut government jobs like the government is some kind of Silicon Valley start up. We cut Medicaid and SNAP for the most vulnerable while ensuring that the super wealthy are more comfortable. We trash the Constitution that we claim to cherish in an effort to remove anyone we won’t like, all without due process. And that’s just a short list of recent weeks. The stupidity, hypocrisy, and cruelty just keeps growing.

This is what we do now in this country – the exact opposite of what makes sense.

But sure, let’s allow churches to endorse political candidates. Of course this ruling is specific to the churches that filed the law suit against the IRS, so it’s not a complete rejection of the Johnson Amendment which prohibited churches from direct political endorsement or political work. That’s actually a protection for churches really. By restricting churches from political activity, it also prevents them from being targeted by political opponents. Without that protection, all bets are off.

And before I get complaints that I’m being political – I’m not endorsing anything and not endorsing any candidates or political parties. And I’m not a church. In fact, I’m registered non-partisan, so I have no interest in advancing any political party. I feel no obligation to defend a political party, their policies, or their belief systems. Often I see plenty wrong with our political parties. I left a political party because of the corruption it was willing to put up with.

I don’t think the people who support this ruling have thought through the implications. Frankly it sounds like a desperate attempt at keeping declining churches relevant. It’s like the old man in the bathrobe yelling at kids to get off his lawn, being a jerk to as many people as possible. All because he is having a difficult time dealing with his own mortality and he can hear death knocking at the door.

The good thing about this ruling is that it makes it pretty clear who the actual churches are and the ones that are a front for something else. We can actually look and see which churches are attempting to follow Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount values versus other ones that are just partisan politics dressed in church drag.

Actual churches, those that worship God and try to live into God’s mission for their context, will reject this ruling as they should. The other churches won’t be able to hide behind the name church any longer no matter how much they try. They are the places that are more concerned with political power and influence, focusing on the culture wars, promoting some ideology or partisan political agenda. They believe in the freedom to impose on others. There’s a long terrible history of Christian churches doing this – and the societies where it happens suffering the consequences of such destructive theology. They will tie themselves and their fortunes and futures to their actual saviors – the ones they put their trust and hope in – politicians and elected officials. In the biblical tradition, I imagine they could be labeled as prostituting themselves, or being adulterers with the empires of this world.

There’s actually quite a bit of this in Scripture. God has the prophet Hosea marry a prostitute as a symbolic act of Israel’s unfaithfulness.

In 2 Kings 17:14-16, it states: “¹⁴ But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”

“¹⁶ They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal.”

The churches that are going to endorse candidates are following worthless idols and these churches become worthless themselves.

Proverbs 7:10-21 is another similar passage – according to www.bibletools.org, it says this about the passage:

You think the politicians look at these endorsements through the lens of faith? Or are those that seek these endorsements sly and cunning, feigning love? Window dressing indeed.

By the time Jeremiah is working as God’s prophet, God has essentially divorced Israel for its unfaithfulness saying the following: “But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers—
    would you now return to me?” declares the Lord.

You can find the full passage in Jeremiah 3:1-5.

If you want other passages, you can check out Ezekiel 16:14-63, Ezekiel 23:5, Hosea 2:2, Hosea 4:12, Amos 3:1-3, Revelation 11:8, Revelation 17:1-17, Revelation 18:7.

The point of all of this has to do with faithfulness. If a church is out endorsing candidates for office, even if that endorsement is supposedly directed at those gathered, it has lost focus on God and has paid attention to the ways of the world. It has shifted its understanding of salvation as reliance on God, to one that depends on who is in office. It has traded Messiahs – rejecting Jesus for some false prophet.

Let’s be clear on this too before I hear arguments about how the church should never say anything political. I don’t buy that either. The church has a role in speaking publicly in support of the poor, the marginalized, against injustice, etc. The church is at its best when it uses it voice to speak up for and with those on the margins to the political establishment. Becaue when it does, it is confronting a universal human condition that crosses boundaries and loyalties. It is speaking about policy. It’s not about who specifically is in office or making a claim of who should be in office. There is a difference. Plus, regardless of who is in office, they have an obligation to the common good. When they don’t promote that, they should hear criticism because they are not living up to the social contract.

This won’t end well for the church if it’s allowed to stand. It will backfire. Nor should it go well for those churches that eat of the fruit of partisan political loyalties. What’s the point of being a church after all if all you are going to do is be a bunch of talking points for some politician or political party? There’s no need for a church to endorse a candidate for office. Nothing good comes of it. There is a need for the church to proclaim salvation through God, to embody the values of the one it claims to worship, and to serve their neighbors in love – to participate in the unfolding of the kingdom of God in their midst. To empower and to set people free from the things that hold them in bondage. If a church wants to endorse anything or anyone, let them endorse Jesus’ way and then live into it.