Blog:FOREST LAKE TALKS

In 1954, Congress approved an amendment, proposed by then senator Lyndon B. Johnson, to prohibit 501(c)(3) organizations from engaging in any political activity, particularly as it relates to campaigning for or against any particular candidate for political office. The Johnson Amendment, as it is now known, has prohibited religious communities of all sorts from supporting or opposing any candidate for political office.

This summer, in response to lawsuit filed by the National Religious Broadcasters and two Texas churches, the Internal Revenue Service entered into a “consent decree in which it agreed that the Johnson Amendment, which has long conditioned section 501(c)(3) tax exempt status on refraining from partisan political activity, cannot be applied to churches and other houses of worship in certain specific circumstances.”(IRS Enters into Consent Decree Limiting Application of Johnson Am) 

I want to assure you that it is my intention to continue to abide by the original intent of the Johnson Amendment. I am a firm believer in the separation of church and state, and am guided in this position by Scripture, by the Confessions of our Church, by the witness of history, and by my own conscience.

Jesus himself tells us, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” (Mark 12:17). And the Barmen Declaration, in our Book of Confessions, was written to resist Adolph Hitler’s pressure to collapse the power of church and state in Germany prior to WWII. There is not a single example in history where the combining of religious authority and political authority turns out well. I challenge you to find one. The outcomes have always been bloody, hateful, and brutal. If the forces in our nation that are attempting now to do away with the separations between the authority of the state and the authority of church are successful, we can look to our own history of failures in the Christian Church as well as the failures of the regimes that combine fundamentalist forms of Islam with the power of the state for what to expect.

Our Book of Order says, “Therefore, we consider the rights of private judgment, in all matters that respect religion, as universal and unalienable: We do not even wish to see any religious constitution aided by the civil power, further than may be necessary for protection and security, and at the same time, be equal and common to all others.” (F-3.0101 b.)

I am a proud supporter of democracy, not because I trust our leaders to always do what is right, but because I do not. Checks, balances, and the separation of the power of Church and State is in everyone’s best interest, not the least of all for the safety of the souls of those who hold power. Dr. King said, “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.” (from “A Knock at Midnight” sermon)