A few weeks ago, the White House encouraged federal agencies to be less than zealous about enforcing the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 piece of legislation that forbids non-profit organizations from advocating political or policy positions lest they lose their tax-exempt status or even be prosecuted for tax fraud. Mitchell Rocklin argues that Jews of all denominations should encourage the law’s repeal:
Consider an election featuring a progressive supporter of single-payer healthcare versus a conservative free-market reformer. Several weeks before the election, a synagogue could lose its tax-exempt status if its rabbi preaches that Judaism prioritizes supporting social justice in all areas of life. Similarly, a synagogue could lose its status if its rabbi preached that Judaism is strongly opposed to socialism in all its forms, and that his congregants have a religious obligation to oppose it. All that would matter for the purposes of enforcement is who is running the IRS. Indeed, the law is so ambiguous that many rabbis refrain from making any remarks that could even be perceived as political. . . .
It is therefore particularly tragic and shortsighted that many progressives support the Johnson Amendment. . . . American Jews provide a case in which progressive groups are far more political and vocal than traditionalist groups. Congregants are far more likely to hear political sermons in Reform synagogues, which tend to emphasize progressive political issues as part of their religious outlooks, than in Orthodox ones, which tend to eschew politics in the synagogue in favor of ritual or “spiritual” matters. And yet, in defending the Johnson Amendment, some progressive Jews are defending a policy that is more likely to be enforced against their own communities.
As for the Orthodox, some rabbis privately believe that the Johnson Amendment is a good thing, helping the Orthodox to keep politics out of religion, and thereby fostering religious devotion in synagogues that tend to be more politically divided than Reform or Conservative congregations. . . . During my years as a congregational rabbi, I never wished to violate the Johnson Amendment from the pulpit, and most fellow Orthodox rabbis I know feel the same way. But we might, under the right circumstances. The instinct of many rabbis, across the denominations, to feel that religion and politics are best kept separate is a noble one. But shouldn’t it be up to clergy—and, by extension their congregants—to decide when exceptions should be made?
Read more on Times of Israel: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-jewish-response-to-fears-of-the-presidency-uniting-against-the-johnson-amendment-and-other-similar-measures/