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Annotated Bibliography

Should religious institutions be allowed to be involved in politics?

Brady Allen

Professor Malcolm Campbell

English 1104

15 March 2017
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Annotated Bibliography
Charities, Churches and Politics. Charities, Churches and Politics, IRS, 12 July 2007,

www.irs.gov/uac/charities-churches-and-politics. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.

This webpage article is from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States.
The reason as to why religious institutions cannot currently voice political dialogue is

because the Johnson Amendment requires that the IRS revoke that institutions 503(c) tax

exception status, which is the tax benefit that allows religious institutions to be withheld

from paying any form of taxes. This section of the website outlines the ban of political

involvement by churches and defines one in compliance with the ban as an institution

which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of

statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for

public office. This website also lightly details the history of the law as being proposed

by Senator Lyndon Johnson and passed in 1954. The IRS also details that its division

that rules over this ban is the Exempt and Government Entities Division. They also detail

a court case in which the law was challenged in its constitutionality (something in which

many individuals still question and fight today) in the court case Branch Ministries Inc

vs. Rossotti. The constitutionality of the law was upheld in this case. This is a wonderful

source because the information come directly from the law that prevents religious

institutions from having political involvement and gives historical information in regards

to the ban as well as how it is upheld. I will be using the source because the information

can be trusted because it comes directly from the government and details how the IRS

views and upholds the law.

Finch, Brooke. "Religion Feature: Pastors Weigh in on Pulpit Politics." Clovis News Journal, the

(NM), 06 Oct. 2016. EBSCOhost, librarylink.uncc.edu/login?

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url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=pwh&AN=2W63103322566&site=pov-live.
This popular article comes from a local news journal called The Clovis News Journal.

The author of this article, Brooke Finch, does a wonderful job in covering the different

opinions that are held by Pastors, the leaders of protestant churches, without having a bias

to her article. I found this article on Points of View database, which is a fantastic resource

to use to find varying opinions regarding a topic. Finch details of how President Donald

Trump has the desire to repeal the Johnson Amendment, the law that restricts political

involvement of religious institutions. The various Pastors interviewed in the article give

their opinions after hearing this news. Some of the Pastors believe it is their duty and

right provided by the first amendment to preach politics to their congregation and to so in

protest to the IRS on designated Pulpit Freedom Sundays. Others say that it is not their

duty to anyone who to vote for. Remaining pastors said that believe Jesus is the answer to

our country, but would not preach politics to their congregations even if they could. I will

use this source because I feel that it will be helpful to have knowledge of a diverse

variety of opinions from individuals in religion vocationally, something in which one

may not expect, along with providing the information without a bias. I also feel that

information from this article regarding President Trump and Pulpit Freedom Sunday is

valuable.
Greenberg, Anne. The Church and the Revitalization of Politics and Community. Political

Science Quarterly, vol. 115, no. 3, Sept. 2000, pp. 377394., Accessed 13 Mar. 2017.
This scholarly article written by Anna Greenberg was featured in a volume of a journal

called Political Science Quarterly. I believe that society often wonders whether a

religious institution can be a benefit to society through political involvement. Through

Greenbergs article, she portrays examples from churches that have had political
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involvement and told their stories in a way that show that she does believe religious

institutions can impact the political realm positively. Greenburg begins her article by

telling of Father Jackson, who leads a mainline African-American church. Father Jackson

fills his churches announcement with headlines that are happening within the local and

federal government and what they can do locally about the issues. Greenberg claims that

locally based institutions, such as the church, are great at connecting people during the

political process. She says this builds social capital and gets people involved and active

within the issues. It has been very interesting to view an opinion that is so well thought

out and described of why they feel churches revitalize politics within the community. I

will be using this article in my research because it gives a well-written, reliable opinion

as to why churches should have political involvement within the society, which requires a

repeal of the Johnson amendment.

Zauzmer, Julie. Trump Said Hell 'Totally Destroy' the Johnson Amendment. What Is It and

Why Should People Care? The Washington Post, WP Company, 2 Feb. 2017,

www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/02/02/trump-said-hell-totally-

destroy-the-johnson-amendment-what-is-it-and-why-do-people-care/?

utm_term=.d829d09ada50. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.

This article from the very popular news journal The Washington Post details President

Donald Trumps desire to repeal the Johnson Amendment. The article covers a great

definition of what the Johnson Amendment is, how it works, how to get rid of it, and why

President Trump wants it gone. The article defines the Johnson Amendments purpose as

preventing all tax-exempt nonprofits from directly or indirectly participating in any

political candidates campaign. President Trump detailed his satisfaction with the law at

the National Prayer Breakfast in January. This breakfast hosted many of the countrys
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prominent religious leaders, made up mainly of protestant Pastors. Trump says he will be

making a great contribution to religion by allowing them to speak openly about any

subject they choose. The article also describes that those who want the law repealed is

made up of many evangelicals from around the country, including over 2,000 ministers

who project the amendment on Pulpit Freedom Sunday. Lifeway found in a poll in 2015

that 79% of Americans believe that churches should not endorse political candidates

during worship services. Also, the poll found that only 25% of evangelical Americans

claimed that churches should be able to do so. I feel that this source is a great source for

me to use because it gives detailed information about the Johnson Amendment and what

it does, what different people groups feel about it, and what can be done to repeal it if

people desired to do so. All of this is valuable information to reference in my research.

The only negative aspect of this article is that The Washington Post tends to have a liberal

bias in their writing, but I do not feel that bias is an issue in this article.

Overall I thought you did a good job presenting your sources and all the information
required in the rubric. I really like the topic you chose for its unique and not something
usually brought up in politics that much today, although I couldnt really tell if you were
arguing whether churches should be able to express political views or seeing it from an
exploratory side. For your sources overall they look pretty good and creditable, the only
thing is I feel the two talking about Donald Trump and his views kind of overlap in
information. I also couldnt find in the last source if you said whether you were going to
use this source or not. Aside from that this topic and bibliography looks in pretty good
shape.