On Monday, President Donald Trump spoke for nearly 90 minutes at the White House Faith Luncheon, a gathering of faith leaders and CEOs whose companies support faith-based groups. Though his speech wasn’t all about religion—he touched on the election, his “Big Beautiful Bill,” and foreign policy, among other topics—he devoted a portion of it to celebrating the recent decision by the IRS to redefine the rule against political activity at churches. The agency clarified that it considers political endorsements in the context of religious services to be private communications, and therefore not in violation of the Johnson Amendment.
“As President, I’ve ended the radical left’s war on faith, and we’re once again protecting religious freedom like never before in our country!” he told the approximately 60 people who had gathered. “We’re getting rid of the Johnson Amendment that didn’t let the pastors and ministers and everybody speak about politics. Now you’re able to speak about politics!” As my colleague David Corn wrote last week, the IRS’ decision represents a major change from how churches used to navigate political concerns:
Churches have long been allowed to participate in politics in various ways. Clergy could address political issues from the pulpit, and churches could distribute so-called educational material related to elections (such as the voting guides that the Moral Majority and other fundamentalist outfits have produced comparing candidates, which functioned as de facto endorsements). Inviting candidates to speak to congregations has been a popular action within Black churches. But churches were explicitly not allowed to back the election of a specific candidate. Support had to be delivered with a nod and a wink.
Trump recalled that when he was first campaigning for president in 2016, he was shocked to learn that a group of faith leaders he met with wasn’t allowed to publicly endorse him. “I said, ‘You have more power than anybody, but you’re not allowed to use your power.’ I said, ‘We’re going to get rid of that, because people want to hear what you have to say more than anybody else, pretty much.’ And we did get rid of it!”
Several members of Trump’s White House Faith Office were present at the luncheon, and he occasionally addressed them directly. “Paula, you can say, ‘I don’t like that guy, and they won’t take away your tax-exempt status,” he said. The “Paula” in question was likely Paula White, Trump’s senior adviser to the Faith Office.
White is a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation, a growing charismatic movement led by a loose network of self-appointed prophets and apostles. Many NAR leaders teach that Christians are called to take dominion over all aspects of society, including politics. Last fall, I wrote about her years-long influence on Trump—and her involvement in the lead-up to the 2021 attack on the Capitol:
Since 2016, many NAR prophesies have concerned Trump, whom adherents see as having been divinely chosen to lead the country. Trump’s introduction to the movement came in 2002 when he invited Florida apostle Paula White to be his personal minister after seeing her preach on television.
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As the 2020 election drew near, their role became more important. White warned her followers that Christians who don’t support Trump will “have to stand accountable before God one day.” Shortly after Trump’s defeat, Sheets became an influential figure in the “Stop the Steal” campaign, leading rallies across the country. He warned that the results of the presidential election were “going to be overturned and President Trump is going to be put back in office for four years.” Around the same time, White-Cain gave a speech imploring religious Americans to “strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike and strike until you have victory.”
During the speech, Trump also compared his own legal struggles with those of persecuted Christians. “I stopped the Biden administration’s persecutions of Christians and pro-life activists,” he said. “They would put people in jail if they even uttered the word, and well, look at me. I mean, look what happened to me! I was under investigation more than the late great Alphonse Capone!”
At the end of the speech, Trump called on White to lead the attendees in prayer. Before she bowed her head, she praised Trump for his support of religious leaders. “He is our greatest champion of faith, of any president, that the United States of America has ever had,” she said. Quoting the Old Testament story of Esther, the brave queen who saved the Jews from a wicked ruler, she assured the attendees, “You’ve been called by God to his kingdom for such a time as this.”
This post has been syndicated from Mother Jones, where it was published under this address.