Legislated Laryngitis: Silencing the Church

By Chuck Colson
September 23, 2010

It was a voice vote that silenced the voice of the church for generations.

In 1954, then-Senator Lyndon Johnson was in the middle of a particularly bruising re-election battle. Two nonprofit groups had been especially troublesome to the senator, vocally opposing his candidacy.

So, on a hot summer day in Washington, D.C., Johnson slipped an amendment into the IRS 501(c)(3) code that governs nonprofit organizations in order to restrict their speech -- including the speech of churches. Johnson’s amendment stated that nonprofits could not “participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing and distributing of statements) any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office.”

The penalty for such “participation”? Revocation of their tax-exempt status. the rest image

It’s now time to ask the question: Who decides what the church can and cannot say?