“It creates hurdles for a healthy, functioning, pluralistic democratic society,” he said.
He urged congregants to “vote her behind right out of office” and challenged the media to call him out for violating the Johnson Amendment.Īndrew Whitehead, a sociologist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, who studies Christian nationalism, said the ramping up of political activity by churches could further polarize the country. Michelle Lujan Grisham “beyond evil” and “demonic” for supporting abortion access. And in July, a New Mexico pastor called Democratic Gov. Lisa Murkowski, saying the challenger was the “only candidate for Senate that can flat-out preach.” During a May 15 sermon, a pastor in Rocklin, California, asked voters to get behind “a Christian conservative candidate” challenging Gov. Trump’s opposition to the law banning political activity by nonprofits “has given some politically-minded evangelical leaders a sense that the Johnson Amendment just isn’t really an issue anymore, and that they can go ahead and campaign for or against candidates or positions from the pulpit,” said David Brockman, a scholar in religion and public policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.Īmong the violations the newsrooms identified: In January, an Alaska pastor told his congregation that he was voting for a GOP candidate who is aiming to unseat Republican U.S. Some pastors have gone so far as to paint candidates they oppose as demonic. Although the provision was mostly uncontroversial for decades after it passed in 1954, it has become a target for both evangelical churches and former President Donald Trump, who vowed to eliminate it.īurden’s sermon is among those at 18 churches identified by the news organizations over the past two years that appeared to violate the Johnson Amendment, a measure named after its author, former President Lyndon B. What Burden said that day in May 2021 was a violation of a long-standing federal law barring churches and nonprofits from directly or indirectly participating in political campaigns, tax law experts told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. And I have jurisdiction over that this morning.” God wants to shift the balance of power in our city. “I got a candidate that God wants to win. “But you know what I got jurisdiction over this morning is an election coming up on Saturday,” Burden told parishioners. He lamented that he lacked jurisdiction over the state Capitol, where he had gone during the 2021 Texas legislative session to lobby for conservative priorities like expanded gun rights and a ban on abortion. Grasping his Bible with both hands, Burden said God was working through his North Texas congregation to take the country back to its Christian roots.
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