As next week’s midterm elections quickly approach, a war is brewing in Texas between a nonprofit news organization and at least one pastor.
The Texas Tribune and ProPublica are inviting readers to report conservative church leaders who endorse specific candidates for election, but that isn’t stopping Robert Jeffress from encouraging his parishioners to vote according to their biblical beliefs.
“This Sunday [Nov. 6] in our church, I’m going to end just like I did in 2020 by encouraging people to vote their biblical convictions, acknowledging we don’t endorse candidates, but we do endorse Christians standing up against the godless agenda of the Left,” he said.
“No need to mention names.”
A senior pastor at the 16,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Jeffress is a Fox News contributor and vocal supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Pastors have the right to personally endorse any candidate they want to endorse and secondly, pastors have the freedom and the responsibility to preach about issues voters ought to consider in the election on Nov. 8,” he said.
Jeffress is among the conservative pastors noted in an Oct. 30 Texas Tribune article as appearing to violate the Johnson Amendment, a provision in the U.S. Tax Code that prohibits 501(c)3 organizations from endorsing or condemning specific political candidates.
“If anybody thinks what I say violates the Johnson Amendment, we'll see you in court,” he added.
The Texas Tribune and ProPublica allege that sermons on 18 occasions over the past two years violate the amendment. But it is subject to interpretation and often to the detriment of conservative voices, according to Jeffress.
“The Johnson Amendment needs to be repealed,” he said. “It’s selectively enforced. What is prohibited in conservative churches has been allowed for years in Democrat-leaning churches.”
Although like many religious organizations and churches, the Texas Tribune is a fellow 501(c)3 organization, the reporters posted a link at the end of their article inviting readers to document the political activity of churches, such as helping a candidate raise funds, sharing campaign literature, posting signs, hosting candidates, criticizing or praising candidates during a sermon or function, and publishing a voter guide.
“The IRS says pastors endorsing candidates from the pulpit is ‘clearly prohibited,’ but other situations are less clear,” the form states. “Please send us examples of any political activity you see at churches or other religious organizations, and we’ll look into whether it breaks the rules.”
However, Jeremy Dys, special counsel for litigation and communications with First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal organization in Plano, told The Epoch Times that religious organizations can host partisan events as long as the opportunity is offered to both political sides.
“It seems like every election cycle there is somebody who’s bothered by pastors in churches, either in their individual capacities or as a church themselves, who would dare to speak unto the cultural issues of the day, but to try and intimidate churches into silence is the very last thing that the founding fathers wanted in our country,” he said.
The controversy escalated when, in a tweet posted on Twitter this week, the Texas Freedom Coalition turned the tables on the Texas Tribune by asking constituents for their input on any violations of the Texas Tribune’s nonprofit status and included a link to their Texas Accountability Project submission form.
“Any time you see them campaigning or helping Democrats fundraise or not giving equal deference to both Republicans and Democrats, we ask you to report,” said State Rep. Mayes Middleton, chairman of the Texas Freedom Caucus, in a statement online.
The Texas Tribune did not respond to several requests for comment. ProPublica acknowledged receipt but did not issue a statement.
A coalition of 10 elected Republican state representatives, the conservative caucus of Texas politicians condemned the Texas Tribune’s data-collecting as a witch hunt targeting churches and labeled the nonprofit news organization as a de facto arm of President Joe Biden’s IRS.
“Churches should be left alone,” State Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano) told The Epoch Times. “The First Amendment includes the right to free speech and the right to practice your faith.”
Shaheen is a member of the Texas Freedom Caucus.
The stakes are high for both the Texas Tribune and nonprofit conservative churches nationwide because a Johnson Amendment complaint to the IRS can result in the loss of tax-exempt status and becoming entangled in a costly investigation.
Jeffress recalls being the subject of such an “inconvenient” inquiry after former Vice President Mike Pence visited First Baptist Church in June 2020 five months before the presidential election and two months before Pence was officially nominated as a political candidate.
“We followed all the protocols, never mentioned his candidacy, never urged people to vote, and I contrast that with what Joe Biden did the Sunday before the election in 2020 in which he openly campaigned at a church with a campaign banner and yet there’s no evidence the IRS ever investigated that,” Jeffress added.
The IRS acknowledged receipt of a request for comment but did not issue a statement.
“If pastors or churches or synagogues or other houses of worship and religious institutions are facing the threats of the IRS or anyone else from the government, they need to go to FirstLiberty.org,” Dys told The Epoch Times. “Look us up to see if we can help them out.”
The First Liberty Institute defended Christians Engaged last year after the IRS denied the nonprofit its 501(3)(c) status because it allegedly engaged in prohibited political campaign intervention. Christians Engaged is bipartisan but its president had campaigned for political office as a Republican.
“Eventually, after we were able to get involved, we got them out from underneath that IRS investigation,” Dys added. “So, thankfully they’re able to continue to do their work that they’ve been called to do without any further interference.”
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