Johnson Amendment Lawsuit: Can Pastors Endorse Candidates? (Troy Miller)

Can pastors endorse political candidates? Troy Miller, president and CEO of National Religious Broadcasters, explains NRB’s Johnson Amendment lawsuit against the IRS.

The Johnson Amendment was added to the tax code in 1954 by then Senator Lyndon B. Johnson. It bars 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches, from endorsing or opposing political candidates. Miller explains why NRB went to court in 2024 and why the case was narrowed to pastors speaking to their congregations. He also explains how a consent decree with the Justice Department now depends on an appeal to the Fifth Circuit over the Anti-Injunction Act. He and James clarify what the case would and would not change for churches, broadcasters, and podcasters.

The conversation questions the assumption that keeping faith out of public life produces neutrality. Miller argues that someone’s worldview always guides law and policy. He traces a long history of pastors speaking to moral questions, from the Black Robe Regiment to Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms. James weighs the risks of pastors speaking about candidates and why the case may matter most for local politics. He also notes the irony that for-profit corporations face fewer limits on political activity than nonprofits.

In this episode:

• What is the Johnson Amendment, and how did Lyndon B. Johnson add it to the tax code in 1954?
• Why National Religious Broadcasters sued the IRS, and what the consent decree with the Justice Department would protect
• The Anti-Injunction Act and NRB’s appeal to the Fifth Circuit
• Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists, and the separation of church and state
• Why the case covers pastors and their broadcasts but not other Christian broadcasters or podcasters

Guest: Troy Miller, president and CEO of National Religious Broadcasters.

Go deeper: Christians and Politics
About Troy Miller: thinkingchristian.org/guests/troy-miller

Thinking Christian is hosted by Dr. James Spencer, president of the D. L. Moody Center and author of Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press). Each conversation reads the Bible as the final authority for life and faith, questioning the assumptions of our culture, even our Christian culture, so that we don’t settle for a narrower vision than God’s word offers.

Unsettling convention. Cultivating conviction.
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