Churches are endorsing in elections while the IRS looks the other way

This article is co-published with ProfessionalPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of energy. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to obtain tales like this one in your inbox as quickly as they are printed.

Also, sign up for The Brief, our day by day e-newsletter that retains readers up to the mark on the most important Texas news.

Six days earlier than a neighborhood runoff election final 12 months in Frisco, a affluent and rising suburb of Dallas, Brandon Burden paced the stage of KingdomLife Church. The pastor advised congregants that demonic spirits have been working by means of members of the City Council.

Grasping his Bible with each arms, Burden mentioned God was working by means of his North Texas congregation to take the nation again to its Christian roots. He lamented that he lacked jurisdiction over the state Capitol, the place he had gone throughout the 2021 Texas legislative session to foyer for conservative priorities like expanded gun rights and a ban on abortion.

“But you know what I got jurisdiction over this morning is an election coming up on Saturday,” Burden advised parishioners. “I got a candidate that God wants to win. I got a mayor that God wants to unseat. God wants to undo. God wants to shift the balance of power in our city. And I have jurisdiction over that this morning.”

What Burden mentioned that day in May 2021 was a violation of a long-standing federal regulation barring church buildings and nonprofits from straight or not directly collaborating in political campaigns, tax regulation specialists advised ProfessionalPublica and The Texas Tribune. Although the provision was principally uncontroversial for many years after it handed in 1954, it has turn out to be a goal for each evangelical church buildings and former President Donald Trump, who vowed to get rid of it.

Burden’s sermon is amongst these at 18 church buildings recognized by the news organizations over the previous two years that appeared to violate the Johnson Amendment, a measure named after its creator, former President Lyndon B. Johnson. Some pastors have gone as far as to color candidates they oppose as demonic.

At one level, church buildings fretted over dropping their tax-exempt standing for even unintentional missteps. But the IRS has largely abdicated its enforcement duties as church buildings have turn out to be extra brazen. In reality, the variety of obvious violations discovered by ProfessionalPublica and the Tribune, and confirmed by three nonprofit tax regulation specialists, are larger than the whole variety of church buildings the federal company has investigated for intervening in political campaigns over the previous decade, in response to data obtained by the news organizations.

In response to questions, an IRS spokesperson mentioned that the company “cannot comment on, neither confirm nor deny, investigations in progress, completed in the past nor contemplated.” Asked about enforcement efforts over the previous decade, the IRS pointed the news organizations to annual studies that don’t include such information.

Neither Burden nor KingdomLife responded to a number of interview requests or to emailed questions.

Trump’s opposition to the regulation banning political exercise by nonprofits “has given some politically-minded evangelical leaders a sense that the Johnson Amendment just isn’t really an issue anymore, and that they can go ahead and campaign for or against candidates or positions from the pulpit,” mentioned David Brockman, a scholar in faith and public coverage at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

Among the violations the newsrooms recognized: In January, an Alaska pastor advised his congregation that he was voting for a GOP candidate who’s aiming to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, saying the challenger was the “only candidate for Senate that can flat-out preach.” During a May 15 sermon, a pastor in Rocklin, California, requested voters to get behind “a Christian conservative candidate” difficult Gov. Gavin Newsom. And in July, a New Mexico pastor known as Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham “beyond evil” and “demonic” for supporting abortion entry. He urged congregants to “vote her behind right out of office” and challenged the media to name him out for violating the Johnson Amendment.

Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist at the University of Indiana-Purdue, who research Christian nationalism, mentioned the ramping up of political exercise by church buildings may additional polarize the nation. “It creates hurdles for a healthy, functioning, pluralistic democratic society,” he mentioned. “It’s really hard to overcome.”

The Johnson Amendment doesn’t prohibit church buildings from inviting political audio system or discussing positions which will appear partisan nor does it limit voters from making faith-based choices on who ought to characterize them. But as a result of donations to church buildings are tax-deductible and since church buildings don’t must file monetary disclosures with the IRS, with out such a rule donors looking for to affect elections may go undetected, mentioned Andrew Seidel, vp of strategic communications for the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“If you pair the ability to wade into partisan politics with a total absence of financial oversight and transparency, you’re essentially creating super PACs that are black holes,” Seidel mentioned.

Churches have lengthy balanced the tightrope of political involvement, and blatant violations have beforehand been uncommon. In the Nineteen Sixties, the IRS investigated complaints that some church buildings abused their tax-exempt standing by distributing literature that was hostile to the election of John F. Kennedy, the nation’s first Catholic president. And in 2004, the federal company audited All Saints Episcopal Church in California after a pastor gave an anti-war speech that imagined Jesus speaking to presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. The pastor didn’t endorse a candidate however criticized the Iraq battle.

Some conservative teams have argued that Black church buildings are extra politically lively than their white evangelical counterparts however are not as closely scrutinized. During the 1984 presidential marketing campaign, Democratic candidate Rev. Jesse L. Jackson was accused of turning Sunday sermons into marketing campaign rallies and utilizing Black church buildings to lift funds. In response to allegations of unlawful campaigning, Jackson mentioned at the time that strict tips have been adopted and denied violating the regulation.

While some Black church buildings have crossed the line into political endorsements, the lengthy legacy of political activism in these church buildings stands in sharp distinction to white evangelical church buildings, the place some pastors argue religious Christians should take management of presidency positions, mentioned Robert Wuthnow, the former director of the Princeton University Center for the Study of Religion.

Wuthnow mentioned long-standing voter outreach efforts inside Black church buildings, reminiscent of Souls to the Polls, which inspires voting on Sundays after church companies, largely keep inside the boundaries of the regulation.

“The Black church has been so keenly aware of its marginalized position,” Wuthnow mentioned. “The Black church, historically, was the one place where Black people could mobilize, could organize, could feel that they had some power at the local level. The white evangelical church has power. It’s in office. It’s always had power.”

At the finish of his two-hour sermon that May, Burden asserted that his church had a God-given energy to decide on lawmakers, and he requested others to hitch him onstage to “secure the gate over the city.”

Burden and a handful of church members crouched down and held on to a rod, at occasions talking in tongues. The pastor mentioned intruders reminiscent of the mayor, who was not up for reelection final 12 months however who supported one among the candidates in the race for City Council, can be denied entry to the gates of the metropolis.

“Now this is bold, but I’m going to say it because I felt it from the Lord. I felt the Lord say, ‘Revoke the mayor’s keys to this gate,’” Burden mentioned. “No extra do you may have the key to the metropolis. We revoke your key this morning, Mr. Mayor.

“We shut you out of the place of power,” Burden added. “The place of authority and influence.”

Johnson Amendment’s Cold War roots

Questions about the political involvement of tax-exempt organizations have been swirling when Congress ordered an investigation in April 1952 to find out if some foundations have been utilizing their cash “for un-American and subversive activities.”

Leading the probe was Rep. Gene Cox, a Georgia Democrat who had accused the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations, amongst others, of serving to alleged Communists or Communist fronts. Cox died throughout the investigation, and the closing report cleared the foundations of wrongdoing.

But a Republican member of the committee argued for extra scrutiny, and in July 1953, Congress established the House Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations. The committee centered closely on liberal organizations, however it additionally investigated nonprofits reminiscent of the Facts Forum basis, which was headed by Texas oilman H.L. Hunt, an ardent supporter of then-Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, a Republican who was greatest identified for holding hearings to research suspected Communists.

In July 1954, Johnson, who was then a senator, proposed an modification to the U.S. tax code that may strip nonprofits of their tax-exempt standing for “intervening” in political campaigns. The modification sailed by means of Congress with bipartisan help and was signed into regulation by Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Johnson by no means defined his intent. Opponents of the modification, as well as some academics, say Johnson was motivated by a desire to undercut conservative foundations reminiscent of the National Committee to Uphold Constitutional Government, based by newspaper magnate Frank Gannett, which painted the Democrat as mushy on communism and supported his opponent in the main election. Others have hypothesized that Johnson hoped to go off a wider crackdown on nonprofit foundations.

Over the subsequent 40 years, the IRS stripped a handful of non secular nonprofits of their tax-exempt standing. None have been church buildings.

Then, simply 4 days earlier than the 1992 presidential election, Branch Ministries in New York ran two full-page adverts in USA Today and The Washington Times urging voters to reject then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, a Democrat, in his problem to Republican President George H.W. Bush.

The adverts proclaimed: “Christian Beware. Do not put the economy ahead of the Ten Commandments.” They asserted that Clinton violated scripture by supporting “abortion on demand,” homosexuality and the distribution of condoms to youngsters in public faculties. Clinton, the adverts mentioned, was “openly promoting policies that are in rebellion to God’s laws.”

The IRS revoked the church’s tax-exempt standing, resulting in an extended authorized battle that ended with a U.S. appeals court siding with the federal agency.

The case stays the solely publicly identified instance of the IRS revoking the tax-exempt standing of a church due to its political exercise in practically 70 years. The Congressional Research Service mentioned in 2012 {that a} second church had lost its tax-exempt status, but that its identity “is not clear.”

Citing a rise in allegations of church political exercise main as much as the 2004 presidential election between incumbent Bush and Kerry, IRS officers created the Political Activities Compliance Initiative to fast-track investigations.

Over the subsequent 4 years, the committee investigated scores of churches, together with 80 for endorsing candidates from the pulpit, in response to IRS studies. But it didn’t revoke the tax-exempt standing of any. Instead, the IRS principally despatched warning letters that company officers mentioned have been efficient in dissuading church buildings from persevering with their political exercise, asserting that there have been no repeat offenders in that interval.

In some circumstances, the IRS initiated audits of church buildings that might have led to monetary penalties. It’s unclear what number of did.

In January 2009, a federal court dismissed an audit into alleged monetary improprieties at a Minnesota church whose pastor had supported the congressional marketing campaign of former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Republican from Minnesota.

The court docket discovered that the IRS had not been following its personal guidelines for a decade as a result of it was tasked with notifying church buildings of their authorized rights earlier than any pending audits and was required to have an appropriately high-level official log out on them. But a 1998 company reorganization had eradicated the place, leaving decrease IRS workers to provoke church investigations.

Following the ruling, the IRS suspended its investigations into church political exercise for 5 years, in response to a 2015 Government Accountability Office report.

During the hiatus, a conservative Christian initiative known as Pulpit Freedom Sunday flourished. Pastors recorded themselves endorsing candidates or giving political sermons that they believed violated the Johnson Amendment and despatched them to the IRS. The purpose, in response to members, was to set off a lawsuit that would lead to the prohibition being ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The IRS by no means challenged collaborating church buildings, and the effort wound down with out reaching its goal.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request from ProfessionalPublica and the Tribune final 12 months, the IRS produced a severely redacted spreadsheet indicating the company had launched inquiries into 16 church buildings since 2011. IRS officers shielded the outcomes of the probes, they usually have declined to reply particular questions.

Despite the company’s restricted enforcement, Trump promised shortly after he took workplace that he would “totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.”

As president, Trump tried unsuccessfully to take away the restrictions on church politicking by means of a 2017 executive order. The transfer was largely symbolic as a result of it merely ordered the authorities to not punish church buildings in another way than it might any other nonprofit, in response to a legal filing by the Justice Department.

Eliminating the Johnson Amendment would require congressional or judicial motion.

Although the IRS has not mentioned its plans, it has taken procedural steps that may allow it to ramp up audits once more if it chooses to.

In 2019, greater than 20 years after eliminating the high-level place wanted to log out on motion towards church buildings, the IRS designated the commissioner of the company’s tax-exempt and authorities entities division as the “appropriate high-level Treasury official” with the energy to provoke a church audit.

But Philip Hackney, a former IRS lawyer and University of Pittsburgh tax regulation professor, mentioned he doesn’t learn an excessive amount of into that. “I don’t see any reason to believe that the operation of the IRS has changed significantly.”

The pulpit and politics

There is not any uniform way to watch church sermons throughout the nation. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, many church buildings now put up their companies on-line, and ProfessionalPublica and the Tribune reviewed dozens of them. Many readers shared sermons with us. (You can accomplish that here.)

Texas’ massive evangelical inhabitants and historical past of activism in Black church buildings makes the state a focus for debates over political exercise, mentioned Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

“Combine all of that with the increasing competitiveness of Texas elections, and it’s no surprise that more and more Texas churches are taking on a political role,” he mentioned. “Texas is a perfect arena for widespread, religiously motivated political activism.”

The state additionally has an extended historical past of politically minded pastors, Wuthnow mentioned. Texas evangelical church leaders joined the combat in help of alcohol prohibition a century in the past and spearheaded efforts to defeat Democrat Al Smith, the first Catholic to be nominated for president by a serious celebration, in 1928. In the Nineteen Forties, evangelical fundamentalism started to develop in the Dallas-Fort Worth space.

Today, North Texas stays house to influential pastors reminiscent of Robert Jeffress, who leads the First Baptist megachurch in Dallas. Jeffress was one among Trump’s most fervent supporters, showing at marketing campaign occasions, defending him on tv news exhibits and stating that he “absolutely” did not regret supporting the former president after the lethal Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Burden went a step additional, urging followers to top off on meals and preserve their weapons loaded forward of President Joe Biden’s inauguration. He advised parishioners that “prophetic voices” had advised him in 2016 that Trump would have eight consecutive years in workplace.

The Frisco Conservative Coalition board voted to suspend Burden as chair for 30 days after criticism about his remarks.

Burden known as his feedback “inartful” however claimed he was unfairly focused for his views. “The establishment media is coming after me,” he mentioned at the time. “But it is not just about me. People of faith are under attack in this country.”

Since then, Burden has repeatedly preached that the church has been designated by the Lord to determine who ought to serve in public workplace and “take dominion” over Frisco.

As the runoff for the Frisco City Council approached final 12 months, Burden supported Jennifer White, a neighborhood veterinarian. White had positioned herself as the conservative candidate in the nonpartisan race towards Angelia Pelham, a Black human assets govt who had the backing of the Frisco mayor.

White mentioned she wasn’t in attendance throughout the May 2021 sermon in which Burden known as her the “candidate that God wants to win.” She mentioned she doesn’t consider pastors ought to endorse candidates from the pulpit, however she welcomed church buildings turning into extra politically lively.

“I think that the churches over the years have been a big pretty big disappointment to the candidates in that they won’t take a political stance,” White mentioned in an interview. “So I would love it if churches would go ahead and come out and actually discuss things like morality. Not a specific party, but at least make sure people know where the candidates stand on those issues. And how to vote based on that.”

Pelham’s husband, native pastor Dono Pelham, additionally made an announcement that violated the Johnson Amendment by “indirectly intervening” in the marketing campaign, mentioned Ellen Aprill, an emerita tax regulation professor at Loyola Marymount Law School in Los Angeles

In May 2021, Pelham advised his church that the race for a seat on the City Council had resulted in a runoff. He acknowledged that his church’s tax-exempt standing prevented him from supporting candidates from the pulpit. Then, he added, “but you’ll get the message.”

“It’s been declared for the two candidates who received the most votes, one of which is my wife,” Pelham mentioned. “That’s just facts. That’s just facts. That’s just facts. And so a runoff is coming and every vote counts. Be sure to vote.”

Pelham then requested the congregation: “How did I do? I did all right, didn’t I? You know I wanted to go a little further, but I didn’t do it.”

Angelia Pelham, who co-founded Life-Changing Faith Christian Fellowship in 2008 together with her husband, mentioned the couple tried to keep away from violating the Johnson Amendment. Both disagreed that her husband’s point out of her candidacy was a violation.

“I think church and state should remain separate,” Angelia Pelham mentioned in an interview, including: “But I think there’s a lot of folks in the religious setting that just completely didn’t even consider the line. They erased it completely and lost sight of the Johnson Amendment.”

She declined to debate Burden’s endorsement of her opponent.

In his sermon the morning after Pelham defeated his chosen candidate, Burden advised parishioners that the church’s political involvement would proceed.

“So you’re like, but you lost last night? No, we set the stage for the future,” he mentioned, including “God is uncovering the demonic structure that is in this region.”

“Demonic” candidate

Most Americans don’t need pastors making endorsements from the pulpit, in accordance to a 2017 survey by the Program for Public Consultation, which is a part of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland.

Of the practically 2,500 registered voters who have been surveyed, 79% opposed eliminating the Johnson Amendment. Only amongst Republican evangelical voters did a slight majority — 52% — favor loosening restrictions on church political exercise.

But such endorsements are going down throughout the nation, with some pastors calling for a debate about the Johnson Amendment.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, New Mexico turned an island of abortion entry for girls in Texas and other neighboring states.

The difficulty raised the stakes in the upcoming Nov. 8 New Mexico governor’s race between incumbent Lujan Grisham, a supporter of abortion rights, and Republican challenger Mark Ronchetti, who advocates limiting entry.

“We’re going to fast become the No. 1 abortion place in all of America,” a pastor, Steve Smothermon, mentioned throughout a July 10 sermon at Legacy Church in Albuquerque, which has a median weekly attendance of greater than 10,000 folks. Smotherman mentioned the governor was “wicked and evil” and known as her “a narcissist.”

“And people think, ‘Why do you say that?’ Because I truly believe it. In fact, she’s beyond evil. It’s demonic,” Smothermon mentioned.

He later added: “Folks, when are we going to get appalled? When are we going to say, ‘Enough is enough’? When are we going to stop saying, ‘Well, you know, it’s a woman’s right to choose’? That’s such a lie.”

Church attendees had a stark alternative in the upcoming election, Smothermon mentioned. “We have the Wicked Witch of the North. Or you have Mark Ronchetti.”

The governor’s marketing campaign declined to remark. Neither Legacy Church, Smothermon nor Ronchetti responded to requests for remark.

The sermon was a “clear violation” of the Johnson Amendment, mentioned Sam Brunson, a Loyola University Chicago regulation professor. But Smothermon confirmed no worry of IRS enforcement.

Those who thought he crossed the line have been “so stupid,” Smothermon mentioned throughout the sermon. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

In one other instance, pastors at a Fort Worth church named Mercy Culture have repeatedly endorsed candidates for native and statewide workplaces since its founding in 2019.

“Now, obviously, churches don’t endorse candidates, but my name is Landon and I’m a person before I’m a pastor. And as an individual, I endorse Nate Schatzline,” the lead pastor, Landon Schott, mentioned in a February sermon a couple of church member who was working to fill an open state consultant seat.

Johnson Amendment guidelines enable pastors to endorse in their particular person capability, so long as they are not at an official church perform, which Schott was.

In other companies, Schott challenged critics to complain to the IRS about the church’s help of political candidates and mentioned he wasn’t apprehensive about dropping the church’s tax-exempt standing.

“If you want it that bad, come and take it. And if you think that we will stop preaching the gospel, speaking truth over taxes, you got another thing coming for you,” Schott mentioned in May.

Schatzline, a member of Mercy Culture, obtained 65% of the vote in a May 24 runoff towards the former mayor of the Dallas suburb of Southlake. He works for a separate nonprofit based by Heather Schott, a pastor at Mercy Culture and the spouse of Landon Schott.

Schatzline mentioned in an interview with ProfessionalPublica and the Tribune that Landon Schott, not the church, endorsed him. He added that the church sought authorized recommendation on how to make sure that it was complying with the Johnson Amendment.

“I think prayers can manifest into anything that God wants them to, but I would say that the community rallying behind me as individuals definitely manifested into votes,” Schatzline mentioned.

Mercy Culture additionally supported Tim O’Hare, a Republican working for Tarrant County choose, this 12 months after he got here out towards the shutdowns throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. His opponent in the main had ordered church buildings and companies to quickly shut when she was mayor of Fort Worth.

O’Hare got here to prominence as the mayor of suburban Farmers Branch, the place he championed a metropolis ordinance to ban landlords from renting to immigrants with out authorized standing. A federal court declared the ordinance unconstitutional in 2010 after a authorized battle that value the metropolis $6.6 million.

O’Hare has pledged to rent an election integrity officer to supervise voting and “uncover election fraud.”

“The Lord spoke to me and said, ‘Begin to pray for righteous judges in our city,’” Heather Schott mentioned throughout a Feb. 13 service. “I am believing that Mr. Tim O’Hare is an answered prayer of what we have been petitioning heaven for for the last year and a half.”

Neither Mercy Culture, Landon Schott nor Heather Schott responded to requests for remark. O’Hare additionally didn’t reply to a telephone name and electronic mail looking for remark.

Schott’s feedback have been a prohibited endorsement, mentioned Aprill, the emerita tax regulation professor at Loyola Marymount Law School in Los Angeles.

“It doesn’t say ‘vote for him’ but is still an endorsement,” she mentioned. “There’s no other way to understand the statement that O’Hare has answered prayers for righteous judges.”

Two weeks later, O’Hare received his main. He faces Deborah Peoples, a Democrat, on Nov. 8.

A brand new tactic

On April 18, 2021, a day earlier than early voting started for metropolis council and faculty board elections throughout Texas, pastors at church buildings simply miles aside flashed the names of candidates on overhead screens. They advised their congregations that native church leaders had gathered to debate upcoming metropolis and faculty elections and realized that their members have been amongst these looking for workplace.

“We’re not endorsing a candidate. We’re not doing that. But we just thought because they’re a member of the family of God, that you might want to know if someone in the family and this family of churches is running,” mentioned Robert Morris, who leads the Gateway megachurch in Southlake and served as a member of Trump’s evangelical advisory board.

On the similar day, Doug Page gave an identical message lower than 5 miles away at First Baptist Grapevine.

“And so what we decided to do is look within our church families and say, ‘Who do we know that’s running for office?’ Now, let me clarify with you. This is not an endorsement by us. We are not endorsing anyone. However, if you’re part of a family, you’d like to know if Uncle Bill is running for office, right? And so that’s all we’re going to do is simply inform you.”

Saying that you simply are not endorsing a candidate “isn’t like a magic silver bullet that makes it so that you’re not endorsing them,” Brunson mentioned.

The church buildings’ coordination on messaging throughout the space is notable, in response to University of Notre Dame tax regulation professor Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, who mentioned he hadn’t earlier than seen church buildings organizing to share lists of candidates.

“I do think this strategy is new,” mentioned Mayer, who has studied the Johnson Amendment for greater than a decade. “I hadn’t heard of that before. It’s quite a sophisticated tactic.”

Eight of the 9 candidates talked about by the pastors received their races.

Mindy McClure, who ran for reelection to the Grapevine-Colleyville college board, mentioned she thought church involvement contributed to her defeat in a June 5, 2021, runoff by about 4 proportion factors. Her opponent campaigned on removing critical race theory from district curriculum, while McClure mentioned college students “weren’t being indoctrinated in any way, shape or form.” Critical race concept is a college-level tutorial concept that racism is embedded in authorized methods.

McClure mentioned pastors endorsing from the pulpit creates “divisiveness” in the group.

“Just because you attend a different church doesn’t mean that you’re more connected with God,” she mentioned.

Lawrence Swicegood, govt director of Gateway Media, mentioned this month that the church doesn’t endorse candidates however “inform(s) our church family of other church family members who are seeking office to serve our community.” Page advised ProfessionalPublica and the Tribune that “these candidates were named for information only.”

Eleven days after responding to ProfessionalPublica and the Tribune in October, Morris as soon as once more advised his church that he was not endorsing any candidates throughout the final Sunday sermon earlier than early voting. Then, he once more displayed the names of particular candidates on a display screen and advised parishioners to take screenshots with their cellphones.

“We must vote,” he mentioned. “I think we have figured that out in America, that the Christians sat on the sidelines for too long. And then all of a sudden they started teaching our children some pretty mixed up things in the schools. And we had no one to blame but ourselves. So let’s not let that happen. Especially at midterms.”

Disclosure: Rice University, the Baker Institute for Public Policy and Southern Methodist University have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that’s funded in half by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no position in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a whole list of them here.

Help us report: How do spiritual establishments in your space contain themselves in elections?

ProfessionalPublica and The Texas Tribune wish to perceive how the Johnson Amendment is enforced — or isn’t. Please ship us examples of any political exercise you see at church buildings or other spiritual establishments, and we’ll look into whether or not or not it breaks the guidelines. We wish to hear about examples throughout the political spectrum.