Johnson Amendment was a ‘sword’ used to silence religious leaders, says faith leader praising Trump administration’s pushback

A “sword” hanging over religious leaders and pastors is how Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed described a 1954 tax code provision known as the Johnson Amendment.

The amendment, added to the Internal Revenue Act by then-Senator Lyndon Johnson, prevents churches and other tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates – or risk losing their tax-exempt status.

For decades, it’s served as a threat looming over “broadcasting ministries, over churches, and over pastors and clergy to intimidate them from being able to engage in perfectly constitutional and legal political speech,” Reed told The Lion’s Chris Stigall in an interview Monday at a Religious Liberty Commission hearing. 

The hearing, held at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., included remarks from President Donald Trump, who criticized the Johnson Amendment and called it a “sinister thing.”  

Trump said he first heard about the amendment during his 2016 campaign, when religious leaders were scared to endorse him out of fear of violating the amendment. “I pledged to them that if I win, we’re going to get rid of the Johnson Amendment,” Trump said, adding that religious leaders are “the people we want to hear from.” 

The president stayed true to his word, Reed says, taking decisive action to push back on the Johnson Amendment. 

The amendment “was an attempt to stifle, to intimidate, to silence and deny the First Amendment rights of Christians,” Reed said, noting that although it is still on the books, Trump “ended enforcement of that provision.” 

The Department of Justice under Attorney General Pam Bondi has “gone into court in a case begun by the National Religious Broadcasters and by Intercessors of America, and they have challenged the constitutionality of the Johnson Amendment,” Reed added. The Justice Department’s brief argues it is not constitutional to enforce the amendment when a pastor or faith leader endorses a political candidate.  

Supporters of the Johnson Amendment have argued it creates necessary boundaries between church and state, and it prevents the pulpit from being politicized or weaponized. 

While pastors can decide for themselves if and when to endorse a candidate, Reed said, if a “biblical or moral issue is an issue of distinction and separation in a political race or an electoral contest between two candidates, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be allowed to speak to that.” Reed said that while “enormous progress” has been made to fight back against the amendment, there is still much work to do. 

Reed also addressed Christian voters, pointing to the 2024 election as evidence of what’s possible when religious communities are fully engaged. His coalition reached an estimated 17 to 18 million Christian voters in their homes through a massive door-knocking campaign.  

“We know from our past after-action analysis that [door knocking] bumps turnout for those voters 7%-11%, so we’ve quite literally turned-out millions of Christian voters who otherwise would never have gone to the polls,” he said. When it comes to Christian voters – as well as other voting blocs – many individuals don’t vote unless they feel they’re being directly harmed, he said.  

“I think in 2024, many of them, because of inflation, because of the cost of housing, because of the crisis on the southern border … the culture, the gender issue, all these things together created a toxic stew for the Democrats that really drove Christian turnout,” he said.  

Reed added that while early and mail-in ballots have been “abused by the other side,” until the rules are changed, “if we’re not voting early, it’s asymmetrical warfare. I mean, they’re playing by one set of rules, and we’re playing by another.” 

By embracing early and mail-in voting, Reed said, hundreds of thousands of Christians voted early in battleground states last year, despite not voting in the 2016 and 2020 elections. 

“When we vote and when we stand as a community the way we’re capable of,” he added, “it’s the largest, most vibrant, most energetic and most important single constituency in the electorate.”