In a historic move that reshapes the legal boundaries between Church and State in the United States, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has agreed to stop enforcing a long-standing rule that prohibited churches from endorsing political candidates—freeing clergy to speak more openly from the pulpit during election seasons.
This decision, announced on July 8, 2025, comes after a lawsuit filed in August 2024 by a coalition of religious broadcasters and two Texas churches. The plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of the 1954 Johnson Amendment, which bars 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, including churches, from participating in political campaigns. According to the joint settlement filing, the IRS now agrees that “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 [participating or intervening in a political campaign] any more than does a family discussion concerning candidates.”
So why does this matter to Catholics?
The ability to speak freely about moral and political issues has long been constrained by fears of government retaliation. Pastors who addressed abortion, same-sex marriage, or religious liberty from the pulpit have often been accused of crossing into “politics”—despite these being deeply rooted in Catholic teaching. Now, the legal barrier that forced churches to self-censor under threat of losing tax-exempt status has been formally dismantled.
The Johnson Amendment, first passed without debate in 1954 and long considered a shield against political entanglement for nonprofits, had become a muzzle for churches. “The rule imposes a substantial burden on plaintiffs’ free exercise of religion,” the IRS admitted in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The agency further acknowledged that the amendment is “not a neutral rule of general applicability,” as it allowed many other nonprofits to comment on political issues while singling out churches for punishment.
According to the court documents, the law also created “serious tension with the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause” by favoring religions that avoided political subjects over those that addressed moral issues linked to elections. In other words, some churches were penalized not for engaging in politics per se, but for preaching biblical truth that happened to overlap with contemporary political debates.
That’s why the National Religious Broadcasters, one of the plaintiffs, argued the Johnson Amendment had “silenced their speech while providing no realistic alternative for operating in any other fashion.” Their lawsuit was not about turning the Church into a political machine—it was about reclaiming the right to speak truthfully and fully without fear.
How did we get here?
The legal tide began turning years ago. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump said he wanted to “get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.” Although a formal repeal effort in Congress failed that year, enforcement of the rule had already weakened. After a 2013 scandal involving IRS targeting of conservative groups, the agency imposed a moratorium on investigations. Even the atheist Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) sued in 2014, alleging the IRS was failing to go after churches violating the rule.
In truth, the Johnson Amendment was largely unenforced against religious organizations. But its existence chilled free speech. Churches feared that even a simple homily pointing out where a candidate stood on life issues or religious liberty could be interpreted as “intervening” in an election. Now, with the court accepting the IRS’s agreement not to enforce this interpretation, that threat has been neutralized.
So what does this mean for the Catholic Church?
This is not a license for partisanship, but a renewed freedom to proclaim the Gospel without hesitation—even when it collides with political sensitivities. Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said it best: “The IRS has no business censoring what a pastor preaches from the pulpit.” He emphasized that constitutional rights should never be traded for tax benefits: “No one would suggest a pastor give up his church’s tax-exempt status if he wants to keep his constitutional protection against illegal search and seizure or cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Churches are constitutionally entitled to a tax exemption and that exemption cannot be conditioned on the surrender of constitutional rights,” Stanley told LifeSiteNews.
In recent decades, cultural and political forces have increasingly rebranded biblical truths as “political opinions.” As Stanley notes, “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.”
For Catholic priests and lay leaders, this decision offers renewed clarity: the pulpit is not a political platform, but neither is it a place for silence when moral truth is under threat. Whether the topic is abortion, euthanasia, gender ideology, or religious liberty, Catholic leaders now have firm legal footing to shepherd their flocks without fear.
As the 2026 election season approaches, this decision may prove to be a defining moment for the Church in America—a call to boldness, clarity, and faithfulness.
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