BISHOPS of the Episcopal Church in the United States have asked their clergy to refrain from endorsing political candidates from the pulpit, despite a change in federal-tax policy that allows them to do so without a penalty.

The new policy overturns decades of federal law. It emerged in the settlement of a lawsuit put forward by two Baptist churches in Texas and the National Religious Broadcasters Association.

The existing law, known as the Johnson Amendment, was challenged on the grounds that it was being used “to wrongfully silence” organisations. They argued that it infringed churches’ rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion, enshrined in the First Amendment. The US President, Donald Trump, has also criticised the Amendment.

The Johnson Amendment was put forward and accepted by Congress in 1954 by Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, who became US President in 1963. The Amendment prohibited tax-exempt organisations, including churches, from endorsing political candidates. Churches that were found to do so could be stripped of their tax-exempt status, though this has been enforced very rarely: the only publicised case is of a church in Binghamton, New York, which lost its status after publishing newspaper advertisements critical of Bill Clinton during the 1992 presidential election campaign.

In response to the lawsuit, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) submitted a legal document last week setting out a new approach to the law. It said that interpreting the Johnson Amendment to include internal communications between a house of worship and its congregation would create “serious tension” with the First Amendment. It described this situation as akin to a “family discussion concerning candidates”.

“For these reasons, the Johnson Amendment does not reach speech by a house of worship to its congregation, in connection with religious services through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith,” the IRS said.

All parties have called for a “consent judgment”, which must now be approved by a judge before the lawsuit is formally resolved.

Several Episcopalian bishops, however, have issued guidance to their own clergy in the wake of the IRS policy change. The Bishop of Michigan, the Rt Revd Dr Bonnie Perry, told clergy: “Speak boldly on any issue relating to the gospel of Jesus Christ, citing biblical texts and sound Anglican theological precepts, and refrain from endorsing any specific political candidate or political party.”

The Bishop of Oklahoma, the Rt Revd Poulson Reed, said in a statement on the diocesan website that the policy change would introduce partisan politics into church communities in a way that could bring the “bitter divisions” of the wider culture into places of worship. He was concerned that parishioners could be encouraged to put pressure on clergy to make endorsements “compromising both their spiritual and pastoral roles”.

“Dioceses and congregations have always been free to encourage voter registration and education on matters related to the common good, and to speak in the public square on the moral questions of our day, especially as it relates to the poor and vulnerable. But to advocate for one political candidate over another, however well intentioned, takes us down an unsteady and perilous path, where discernment is considerably less clear. Far better to leave the decisions of the voting booth to each individual conscience, informed by faith, but not coerced by it. The clear separation of Church and State is essential to the well-being of both.”

More than three-quarters of Americans in a Pew Research Center study in 2022 said that churches and other houses of worship should not get involved with political endorsements. Majorities of both Republican- and Democrat-leaning voters were opposed to endorsement of candidates by churches.

Of the US adults, 77 per cent said that congregations should not give endorsements, and there was broad agreement for this across all religious groups. Two-thirds also said that they wanted churches to keep out of political issues altogether.