Page 55 - Johnson Amendment News Today

Conservative christian leaders back in 2004 who said, you know, were all going to get behind george w. bush, but if he doesnt deliver the rollbacks on abortion rights and gay rights that he promised us, theres going to come a time where were going to turn on the republican party. we want these things done. donald trump came in and he said hes going to roll back the johnson amendment. he cant do it, right? only congress can do it. but if you go through and talk about 401 wu1 c 3s not able to poli...

Liberty in america. just this week president trump signed an executive order for this freedom. joining me is jerry falwell, jr. this week in the rose garden on the national day of prayer, the president signed an executive order following through with his pledge that he was going to put own end to any discrimination against religion in terms of the political candidates and the ability of some of the churches to be able to state what their positions are. how big a deal is this? >> its a huge deal ...

Required congress. it would have made universities, non-profit, and it would have made them susceptible to political action committees. the johnson amendment has been used since the 50s to bully and intimidate patsr pass towards and leaders of non-profits to not speak their niernld and its un-american. donald trump was the first president in decades that came up with the idea of getting rid of it it was his idea 100%, and im so proids my president. judge jeanine: what do you say to people who sa...

Do that. if we did that we would lose our tax exempt status. why is that. they told me about the johnson amendment, 1954. i said were going to get rid of the johnson amendment. >> reporter: trumps executive order intended to give the irs more discretion to ease up on any enforcement on religious groups who get political. minutes after the new executive order was signed the aclu said it would file a lawsuit. but once the text of the order was released the language was noticeably scaled back and s...

Awful lot of disappointment if they showed up in the rose garden to see something like that. maybe a pathway but fredricka, it is nothing legally and constitutionally. >> richard? >> yeah. fred, churches and religious organizations have tax exempt status. one of the things they cant do is endorse a candidate. but anything short of endorsing a candidate they can do. they can speak freely -- >> they do it anyhow. >> they can have sermons about that every single week. they just cant endorse a parti...

This weekend americans will be headed to their places of worship for the first time since president donald trump signed an executive order thats designed to ease a ban on political activity business religious organizations. cnns rene marsh explains exactly what that means. >> this financial threat against the faith communty is over. no one should be censoring sermons. >> reporter: under the federal tax code the johnson amendment says the irs can investigate churches and potentially lose tax exem...

Whatsoever. >> richard, do you agree with that? >> well, fred, its the weekly insult to the intelligence of the american population by the trump administration. here, he stands up yesterday with pomp and circumstance surrounded by his conservative religious backers and constituents and tells them he annihilated the johnson amendment. first of all, as your reporter said. >> it takes an act of congress. >> right. >> its a wish by a president. its not law. congress has to do that. number two, what ...

Synagogue or any other house of worship. we are giving our churches their voices back. we are giving them back in the highest form. with this executive order we also make clear that the federal government will never ever penalize any person for their protected religious beliefs. paul: that was president trump trump thursday signing executive order on religious liberty that directs irs relax provision code known as johnson amendment that bans churches and other tax-exempt organizations from engag...

Faith and donald trump put on end to that. we are thrilled. its just a first step. we still support full statutory repeal of the johnson amendment. paul: i want to talk about the johnson amendment enforcement. the argument that you hear from a lot of folks, you know what the irs doesnt enforce this very much at all right now so this amendment doesnt do very much more than just say to the irs, enforce it even less. whats your response to that? >> my response to that is the so-called experts that ...

Me because this doesnt do anything. it doesnt repeal or overturn the johnson amendment, it doesnt have any effect on regulations on the books, a trip still cannot support a candidate if it does you lose your tax exempt status. you have a choice. if its not going to have an effect. if you violate a law you violate a law. you violate the law. the point is this. you either have your tax exempt status and dont talk politics or you talk politics and you dont have your tax exempt status. its as clear ...