10 mo. ago • 98%

Christian Nationalists Team Up on Illicit Push to Get Churches to Campaign for Trump

www.rollingstone.com Christian Nationalists Team Up on Illicit Push to Get Churches to Campaign for Trump

Christian nationalist 'Courage Tour' seeks to turn MAGA-leaning, swing state churches into Trump turnout machines.

Churches campaigning for Trump? Take away their tax-exempt status.

Non Paywalled Link: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/x2zrw

Atheism @lemmy.world Christian Nationalists Team Up on Illicit Push to Get Churches to Campaign for Trump

AntiTrumpAlliance @lemmy.world Christian Nationalists Team Up on Illicit Push to Get Churches to Campaign for Trump

72 comments

Remember, if you see or hear a church actively campaigning for any sort of politics you can report them and get their tax free status taken away. 👍

115
- Helpful Link: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/irs-complaint-process-tax-exempt-organizations
  
  57
  
  Thank you!
  
  2
- That’s the brilliant thing about the making politics about cultural issues. Churches can campaign for culture shit all day long. They just can’t say “vote for _____.”
  
  28
  
  But Trump has made clear he won’t punish churches that violate the Johnson amendment in 2024, even vowing on a Christian nationalist broadcast last May that he’ll abolish the prohibition if reelected.
  
  But that's exactly what they're doing.
  
  42
  
  Even when they do, and I have sent in photos of a local church with "Trump 2020" on their placard, nothing at all happens to them.
  
  They aren't even contacted as far as I can tell.
  
  8
- I didn't know that was a thing that could happen
  
  I've got to do some research because my grandparents church has been doing this since Bush Sr.
  
  11
  
  Not a single church ever has had their tax status taken away for politics. It doesn't happen
  
  4
- I mean, it’s supposed to work that way but that's extremely rare.
  
  10
  
  If enough get reported, especially since now it's been vocalized and reported. They're going to be forced to do something about it. I acknowledge it is wishful thinking, though, but don't give up. Report these fucks either way.
  
  40
- Lol that'll be the day. Has that ever happened? Ever?
  
  -3
- Has that ever happened?
  
  -4
  
  So your answer is to do nothing and be apathetic?
  
  11
- you can report them and get their tax free status taken away
  
  And remember, that report will go nowhere and you'll accomplish nothing! The IRS has never gone after a church for this. Never. Reporting them is just as effective as quietly whispering "please tax them" into your pillow at night.
  
  I wish people would recognize the failures in our system and stop suggesting others do shit that doesn't actually work.
  
  -6
  
  I also wish people would stop saying there's no hope so do nothing.
  
  No, record them and send it to the IRS. If nothing happens then fine. Nothing was lost. Along with that work towards change. Telling people the system is broken so do nothing is not going to get you the change you want.
  
  7
This is what you get when you consistently don't crack down on churches abusing their tax-exempt status starting a decade (or longer) ago.

49
- I thought the rules were changed to allow this? I don't remember the specifics but I remember being irritated that we were allowing them to keep their tax exempt status but also allowing them to get involved in politics...
  
  -1
Fine, as long as they have their tax exempt status removed.

48
- They won't, because the politicians they elect will defend their base of support.
  
  This isn't like when Obama/Pelosi went after ACORN in 2009. Or SCOTUS struck down the right of unions to fund raise for candidates under the Janis decision. Or FOX News spent months freaking out over the Ground Zero Mosque. Or Midwestern governors tried to cancel Sunday early voting in order to undermine "Souls to the Polls" black Evangelical turnout. These are people with real money and influence who aren't to be fucked with.
  
  Conservatives will tap that reserve whole heartedly. Liberals will just shrug and say they can't be taxed because of The Norms.
  
  17
Absolutely remove the tax exemption if they are trying to get political

42
- Just remove the exemption no matter what at this point
  
  10
Christofacists are the fucking worst

38
- I hate Illinois nazis
  
  7
Someone commented a while ago that "Nationalist Christians" is a better name for these groups because it conveniently reduces to an easy to remember abbreviation: NatC's

I really think we should push that.

34
- Cnat isn't a hard to remember abbreviation, though.
  
  1
  
  Say NatC out loud. You may find it sounds a lot like another term that applies to Christian Nationalists.
  
  23
Yes, violate your 501c status. We’re watching and ready to report you.

33
- Effectively 1/3 of the US is Nones (and growing). I don't have the breakdown in front of me, but a sizeable number are "switchers," people who left their childhood religion.
  
  I'm personally now an ex-fundigelical antitheist, so I would relish the opportunity to report them!
  
  17
  
  I'm a currently exvangelical Christian and I would also relish the opportunity to report them.
  
  6
  
  Imagine what would happen if a bunch of people "came back to the flock" only to report churches for violations. Imagine how paranoid they'd all be. It'd be hilarious.
  
  2
- Literally nothing happens when you do.
  
  -4
  
  Why are you going out of your way to be apathetic? This entire thread you're going about trying to stop people from doing something that hurts nobody, but the very people that want to fuck our country up. You're assisting them with that attitude and behavior of yours.
  
  7
If anyone finds any especially with video evidence I am more than happy to take a minute to report the shits to the IRS.

31
- Also keep in mind that there's often a reward for turning in tax fraud. Not that should motivate you.
  
  20
  
  Didn't know that and don't care about it when it comes to this.
  
  13
- This makes me want to go back to church. Just a little though.
  
  2
- Why? The IRS never does shit about it. Churches get away with this shit daily
  
  -3
  
  Do the churches get reported? Because I doubt the people going to them are doing it.
  
  9
  
  If we all do nothing then nothing CAN happen. We have to do SOMETHING for something to even have a possibility of happening.
  
  Or...
  
  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
  
  5
I don't get it, if I went to a church and they even mentioned a political candidate I'd never return. That's probably why I'm an atheist now.

16
Definitely not a rat that made a wish to be a human man.

13
- Looks like a used car salesman
  
  1
Enforce the Johnson amendment

13
It's not like the IRS would do anything about it.

3
This is the best summary I could come up with:

It’s a brazen effort to transform religious congregations — which are technically supposed to keep electoral politics out of the pulpit — into a campaign powerhouse for the former president.

He spent much of the recent holiday weekend attempting to trash the legacy of a storied Christian reverend, Martin Luther King, Jr.)

The law is rarely enforced, and has been skirted by churches of all political orientations — whether by pastors who make their personal endorsements public or by congregations organizing turnout-boosting efforts like “souls to the polls.”

But Trump has made clear he won’t punish churches that violate the Johnson amendment in 2024, even vowing on a Christian nationalist broadcast last May that he’ll abolish the prohibition if reelected.

During his podcast, Wallnau insisted that the Courage Tour will also be working with right-wing women’s groups including Moms for America — which touts “truth, family, freedom and the Constitution” — and Concerned Women for America, a group dedicated to “Biblical values and Constitutional principles.” Wallnau insisted: “We’re creating a broad net.”

The movement poses a danger to democracy because it “sees no room for compromise,” Andrew Whitehead, author of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States has told Rolling Stone.

The original article contains 1,120 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

1
- religious congregations — which are technically supposed to keep electoral politics out of the pulpit
  
  Why would large, well-organized, ideologically unified groups of people stay out of electoral politics?
  
  Aren't these exactly the kinds of organizations you'd expect to be hip deep in political organizing and activism?
  
  The movement poses a danger to democracy
  
  I have to say that I think their views are often shit. But they are fundamentally popular shit. Hardly antidemocratic.
  
  Liberals would do well to fight fire with fire. Attend big social groups. Organize with your neighbors. Raise money, run candidates, and enforce ideological orthodoxy as a condition of membership.
  
  Hoping that some rules lawyers at the IRS are going to make Houston's Second Baptist Church go away seems both foolish and unproductive.
  
  -3
Screwed up i tell ya it's all farked

1
Ah yes, a false prophet parade. You'd think Christians would do something about that.

1

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