While I’ve not mentioned it much, more or less because it hasn’t come up, I, along with bunches of skeptics, have worried about the conservative assault on what’s known as the Johnson Amendment:
The Johnson Amendment is a provision in the U.S. tax code, since 1954, that prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. [Wikipedia]
Some religious organizations have considered this an infringement on their free speech rights and have led efforts to repeal it; others have invented ways around it, such as publishing “voter guides”.
But behind all these efforts is An endorsement of a political party based on nothing more than a cleric’s interpretation of Divine will. For new readers, I’ll note that, without any objective evidence of a Divine being, it’s hard to see how clerics can do such a thing. Indeed, given how much contradiction one can find in interpretations of theology, and violence consequent to it, it’s difficult to see such efforts as anything more than the age old pursuit of prestige and power.
One of the unspoken foundations of the United States is rationality. By removing endorsements based on such unverifiable claims as theology, prophecy, and allied claptrap, the United States can instead concentrate on rational analysis. History has proven that a proclamation of Divine favor by a cleric, unverified and unverifiable, and often deeply improbable, can lead to everything up to, and including, existential violence between rival sects.
Truth be told, our perceptions of reality are shaky enough that “rational” analysis will still lead to bone-headed arguments, with more than one side claiming to be science based, others based on stubborn misperception, unearned arrogance, and all that frustrating … glop. But the lack of divine omnipotence motivating sect members into rejecting rationality, compromise, and most other intellectual tools that don’t lead to dominance, immediate and total, will at least give us a chance to craft hard solutions to the difficult question of governance.
Oh, you wonder what set me off? Good news, actually:
A federal judge in Tyler dismissed a lawsuit on Tuesday that sought to allow churches to endorse political candidates without losing their tax-exempt status, dealing a blow to the Trump administration and other conservatives who have worked to eliminate the decades-old law barring nonprofits from supporting political office seekers. [AP]
It’s not the end of the line for invalidating the Johnson Amendment, but at least it’ll keep the peace. Theoretically.
