Earlier this summer, a major change occurred at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). As first reported in LifeSiteNews, the IRS agreed that churches do not ‘intervene’ or participate in political campaigns when they endorse candidates to their own congregations.

The historic move comes after two Texas churches and a group of Christian broadcasters sued the IRS, alleging that the 1954 Johnson Amendment, which requires that nonprofits not endorse political candidates, violates their “First Amendment rights to the freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.”

In a settlement agreement between the plaintiffs and the IRS, jointly filed in July, the IRS agreed that a house of worship does not participate or “intervene” in a political campaign when it communicates to its own congregation.

“Bona fide communications internal to a house of worship, between the house of worship and its congregation, in connection with religious services, do neither of those things, any more than does a family discussion concerning candidates,” stated the joint motion. 

The Johnson Amendment states that certain organizations lose their tax-exempt status if they “participate in, or intervene in…, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”

Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom and head of the Pulpit Initiative, previously told LifeSiteNews that “the IRS has no business censoring what a pastor preaches from the pulpit.”

Election years often bring out criticisms of churches from political opponents. Pastors who speak against abortion or homosexuality are often accused of being political, but Stanley says that’s because “society has been taking issues that are biblical, slapping a political label on them, and telling churches that they are now off-limits. The church has not been invading the realm of politics. Rather, politics has been invading the realm of the church.”