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“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, 'It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.'”

— Matthew 21:12-13 (King James)

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Since it was first proposed by U.S. Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1954, a provision of U.S. tax code known as the Johnson Amendment has prohibited 501(c) (3) organizations, notably charities and churches, from engaging in any political campaign activity. The rule follows a fairly logical argument: If you want to engage in explicit politicking for a candidate, you should not be exempted from having to pay the same array of federal taxes that are levied (or should be levied) against every other business, organization and individual in the land that engages in that activity. Without the Johnson Amendment, taxpayers would be subsidizing the political speech of nonprofits — including those they disagree........

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