Ken Caudell: Keep politics out of religion

Regarding the Feb. 3 news article “Trump vows to reverse rule on churches, politics”: I have changed my mind on repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which prevents places of worship from advocating for political candidates, for a penalty of losing their tax-exempt status.

At first I thought it didn’t matter, because we all know who our ministers, rabbis, imams, etc., support anyway. But upon reflection, I realize that repealing the amendment, which is what President Trump wants, is bad for religious faith and bad for our nation.

This is not a partisan issue. I would suspect that the political divide among clergy is pretty much a representation of how the country voted. Faith would be badly injured, in that most of us don’t go to worship services to hear political harangues anyway, congregations could end up badly divided and people could end up changing religious allegiances simply because they support a different political candidate.

The power of religion is that it is a moral compass. This power would be irreparably harmed. The nation would be harmed by having Congress and the president interfering in religion, setting a precedent for religiously intolerant legislation.

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Ken Caudell: Keep politics out of religion."