Deactivating the tax provision known as the Johnson Amendment could increase the flow of dark money, reducing accountability in campaign finance.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stands during a service at the International Church of Las Vegas in Las Vegas in Oct. 2016.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
Trump embraced evangelicals in his first year as president. Here, scholars provide historical context to how the religious right has shaped American politics over the past decades.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, left, leads a round of applause after his colleagues took a step toward changing the tax code.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
President Trump claims that churches suffer from the over-regulation of their political speech. In reality, oversight is lax for religious groups and secular tax-exempt nonprofits alike.
First Baptist Church Pastor John Crowder leads an open-air Sunday service four days after a deadly fertilizer plant explosion in the town of West, near Waco, Texas, on April 21, 2013.
Reuters/Adrees Latif
The Johnson Amendment requires houses of worship to stay away from politics to receive tax exemptions. Yet, their leaders can speak out in a variety of ways that could reflect their religious views.
Lyndon Johnson, who was friends with evangelist Billy Graham, wasn’t targeting religious groups when he pushed his eponymous amendment in 1954.
AP Photo
President Trump recently repeated his pledge to eliminate the 63-year-old law, which bans charities from engaging in political activities, at the National Prayer Breakfast.