Pulpit Politics and the IRS: How a Tennessee Megachurch Is Testing the Law
As evangelical leaders openly defy the Johnson Amendment, a Chattanooga church shows how close the U.S. is to turning houses of worship into tax-exempt Super PACs.
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The congregation attending Calvary Chapel church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Sunday, July 19, heard a different kind of sermon. According to experts, it was the illegal kind.
Church leaders invited several Republican candidates running in midterm elections and “explicitly encouraged attendees to support them.” As the GOP candidates took the stage, the church’s civics and cultural ministry leader, Adam Calabrese assured his faithful flock, “We can vouch for them.” Unless Calvary Chapel is rebuked by a higher power – like the IRS, all signs point to much more of this in the lead up to November and the great beyond.
If this political blessing of one party’s candidates seems wrong to you, that’s because it is. According to federal income tax specialist Samuel D. Brunson, associate dean of Loyola University Chicago, Calvary Chapel appears to have crossed the unholy line into a tax code violation. Churches are tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations forbidden from directly endorsing political parties or candidates in this manner:
“I’ve seen a lot of sermons that endorse, that try to endorse, that try to endorse without endorsing. This one’s pretty blatant. This is as explicit a violation as you could design. They have done literally everything they could possibly do to violate the Johnson Amendment part of Section 501(c)(3) – like they couldn’t have done a better job violating it if they had tried, and maybe they did try.”
It’s Brunson’s comment, “… and maybe they did try” that’s worth our attention. Calvary Chapel is an evangelical Christian association of 1,800 fellowships around the world. It started in California in 1965 and was the subject of the movie Jesus Revolution starring actor Kelsey Grammer as founding Pastor Chuck Smith. It has regional leadership councils domestically and abroad.
While its local churches are afforded certain autonomy, Calvary Chapel is not some primitive, loose-cannon organization. The Chattanooga fellowship has thousands attend its weekly services and has been listed as one of the fastest growing churches in America. While we don’t know for sure if the Chattanooga event was purposely designed to challenge the IRS’s Johnson Amendment, it wouldn’t surprise me based on recent history. The church has not yet responded to media questions.