Speaker Mike Johnson should end Lyndon B. Johnson's Amendment
For many decades now, those who hold secular views hostile to the Bible have dominated the direction of U.S. government spending and policies while American pastors have been silent. The legal reason is due to the Johnson Amendment, named after Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), which has hovered over the American Church’s head and was written intentionally to restrict those with Christian views from exercising their God-given constitutional rights to chime in on national matters, is pivotal to our culture and economy.
This is a far cry from what our Founding Fathers envisioned and it is high time for this law to be repealed as America’s fate depends on it. Pastors, and particularly those with public clout and celebrity status, should lead the call for Congress to remove this shackle that should never been placed on pastors to begin with. As a constitutional lawyer, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson should understand this better than anyone and has the ability to take meaningful action in the “People’s House” to help get this done.
Most Christians today do not realize that when Lyndon B. Johnson introduced his amendment to muzzle churches in 1954, his ulterior motive was revenge. Before LBJ was president, he served as a U.S. Senator from Texas, the Democrat leader, and that same year when he was running for re-election, there were Americans from a nonprofit group who believed LBJ to be an actual communist and therefore campaigned against him. Johnson was livid by their attacks and to protect his Senate power, he came up with the solution that certainly mimics communism: A ban on any entity with 501(c)(3) status from speaking out. As he said himself in his floor speech the goal was to deny “tax-exempt status to not only those people who influence legislation but also to those who intervene in any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for any public office.”
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Moreover, when you fast forward to a few years later when Lyndon B. Johnson did become president, following President John F. Kennedy's assassination, he ushered in — in collusion with the then Democrat-controlled Congress — communists’ dream plans and drastically reshaped U.S. government into a gigantic socialized welfare state that enticed poor Americans, blacks in particular, to become financially dependent on federal bureaucrats and policymakers.
The math was simple. Federal bureaucrats bumped up Americans' taxes exponentially, and then took and dangled that money in front of other Americans willing to receive a handout in exchange for living a progressive and promiscuous lifestyle (i.e., giving money to women to have multiple children out of wedlock on the condition they do not marry the father — which is a guaranteed formula to stay impoverished, uneducated, hopeless and dependent on the government).
The hook was established and it is the same tactic and formula the liberal left uses today. Tap into an existing law or pass a new one to take the American people's money to create U.S. government programs that simultaneously achieve both — expansion of government control over individual liberty and use America’s money to fund ungodly behavior to rid America of biblical morals.
Fast forward and you can see plenty of examples of this with the Biden administration. For instance, the Biden administration is using the school lunch program as a means to warp the minds of children with their homosexual propaganda. The Biden USDA and Department of Education are working to impose the Democrats’ transgender agenda so that children can only access food if local schools agree to allow boys to use girls' bathrooms — which by any standard should be considered the ultimate epitome of perverse thinking.
Of course, this is just a mere snapshot and only touches the iceberg of some of the ways the secular left controls federal funds to advance their atheist, anti-Bible ideology. And given how the CIA and several top military spy agencies just recently released an internal newsletter with a spy agent bragging about being a cross-dresser, it is clear that no federal institution, agency, or program is off-limits.
There was a time under President Donald Trump when repealing Lyndon Johnson’s church muzzling amendment was a real possibility so that pastors would be allowed to have a say on national public policy matters and those running for office.
While technically the IRS code does allow for churches to have some small say on legislation and federal public policy matters pending before Congress, it clearly stipulates that this must be “minimal.” And since the Johnson Amendment outright bans churches from engaging in any political organizing (i.e., lobbying), the reality is that most churches don’t dare open their mouths. Especially taking into account the power that the IRS yields and how it uses its power to target conservatives (aka born-again Christians).
While Trump has announced plans to remove the IRS repercussions against pastors if he is re-elected once again, we should not wait until then and do nothing. U.S. Speaker Mike Johnson, who perhaps by Divine Providence bears the last name of LBJ, has the power to take steps to do something now, as building support and momentum is critical for success. At a minimum, he should voice his support for allowing the American church to reclaim its constitutional right to speak up.
It is evident that time is ticking and the liberal left sees nothing as off-limits. The Biden administration's satanic attack calling Resurrection Sunday transgender day should jolt all Christians to realize we are truly living in times mirroring Sodom and Gomorrah.
We need the American church to rise up and speak out in defense of America. And if a pastor cannot see, or does not care that they are using our White House to mock Christ to our faces, then I urge church attendees to find another church.
Pastor John K. Amanchukwu Sr. is an influential preacher, author, and activist who spreads God’s truth zealously and without fear. Along with serving his local church in North Carolina, John travels nationally to speak, preach and confront school boards, for which his notoriety has spread coast to coast with 300 million + views on videos of his now famous challenges to woke school board officials. From the battles on the NC State football field to the current-day culture wars, John is a fearless defender of Biblical justice. IKNOWGOD.US.
