I remember my grandfather and I talking politics once, and he told me that when John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, some Catholic priests were quietly and secretly telling their parishioners to vote for the man who would be the first Catholic president.
That was a big deal, because back then, it was sacrosanct to keep church and state separated, so there was some blasphemy for clergy trying to coax their congregations into voting for someone. But those days, seemingly so simple, are now long gone.
This week, the Internal Revenue Service made it official, saying that pastors, priests, and other clergy are now free to endorse political candidates from the pulpit, while their churches are able to keep their tax-exempt status. In a nation founded on the separation of church and state, spiritual leaders can now act as political operatives with the government’s blessing.
That’s not just a blurring of the line, it’s a crucifying of a long-held principle.
Albeit, the line has been fading for decades. Since Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign, the Christian right has exploited the pulpit for political gain, aligning with Republicans under the banner of “pro-life” virtue. Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and their ilk all paid — literally and figuratively — homage to Reagan and the Republican Party.
In return, the GOP gave churches power and the ability to make more money and gain more influence. It was a shrewd business arrangement masked in scripture. But the IRS decision this week takes that devil’s bargain to a new and dangerous level. It’s akin to something like doing away with all gun restrictions. Now it will be a Wild West of clergy pontificating about politics.
As I’m prone to saying, God help us.
Now congregants across the country, people searching for faith, community, and healing, will be forced to sit through political sermons. Some will cheer. Many more will cringe, I am sure. And for those of us who’ve experienced trauma within the church, this feels like betrayal on top of betrayal, because some Catholic priests, in my experience, when given an inch, will take a mile.
I say this not just as an obsessed political observer, but as a lifelong Catholic and as a gay man who was abused by a priest.
That pain never really leaves you. Neither does the memory of how the church, my church, failed to protect its most vulnerable while shielding predators. The hierarchy, cloaked in supposed divine authority, chose self-preservation over accountability. And now they’ll have even more freedom to trade in that moral authority for political capital.
I’ll never forget what I heard from the pulpit in 2016 at a church in New York City, of all places. A rogue priest told us Catholics must vote for the “pro-life” candidate. Everyone knew he meant Donald Trump. Everyone knew he was crossing a line. At least I think they did. I can recall a few heads looking around to see how others were reacting.
But technically, that priest hadn’t endorsed a specific candidate, so that meant that the church most likely kept its tax-exempt status. That thin veil of deniability has now been removed. Priests and pastors no longer need to dance around the name.
They can say it. Shout it. Write it in the bulletin. And worse, make people pray for a winner, such as, “Please say a prayer with me that Donald Trump runs for a third term and continues to save babies.” That’s my fear, and I’m not sure I’m the only one who feels this way.
But it won’t just be Trump. This opens the door to a religious free-for-all in American politics. Yes, liberal-leaning churches may endorse Democrats. But the right has a decades-long head start, a coordinated network, and deep-pocketed donors ready to exploit this new frontier.
At the end of the day, churches are businesses, so like everything else, it’s always — always — about the money. Whether Catholic, evangelical, or otherwise, their survival depends on donations, prestige, and power.
They preach salvation, but they operate like corporations. That’s why they stayed within the IRS’s previous limits for so long. They didn’t want to risk those significant tax breaks, which are worth lots of money.
But now there’s no financial risk in outright partisanship. The only thing they stand to lose is their soul.
I worry most about the Catholic Church. Its obsessive alignment with pro-life politics has already narrowed the minds of a lot of its leaders. Yes, to repeat, it’s about saving the babies, while they look away when migrants are caged, when children drown at the border, when the poor are denied health care, when families are shattered by cruelty. What kind of gospel is that?
They’ve traded the Beatitudes (I remember these from eight years of Catholic elementary school.) for a ballot box. Will campaign posters be hung over the 13 stations of the cross?
It’s not just Catholic priests who might take advantage of it. For sure, evangelical megachurches, many of which have already operated like political machines, will go full throttle. The difference now is that they can say the quiet part out loud. They can turn Sunday worship into a campaign rally. They can wield the cross like a cudgel for the candidate who promises them power.
The IRS has made it clear that there are no longer any consequences. And that is a moral disaster.
As Donald Trump tears through his second term by gutting the rule of law, politicizing the judiciary, and shredding constitutional norms, his corruption will now seep into sanctuaries. The last remaining spaces of supposed spiritual refuge will be infected by the same Trump rot.
And with that, there will be no sacred ground anymore.
Some may welcome this, but what happens when your priest endorses a candidate you find abhorrent? What happens when the pulpit becomes a podium? Where do you go to pray when your church becomes a PAC?
There’s a reason our founders enshrined the separation of church and state. They understood the tyranny that arises when religious power and political power become one. That’s the road we’re on now. And it doesn’t lead to salvation. It leads to hypocrisy and moral ruin.
For those still clinging to the idea that churches offer moral guidance, prepare to be disillusioned. In this new era, faith leaders can endorse evil, i.e. they can freely endorse Donald Trump without consequence. The only cost is to the congregants who are told their souls depend on their vote.
The cost to the country that once prided itself on the separation of church and state is tremendous. God help us.
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This article originally appeared on Advocate: When Father Joe tells you who to vote for, America loses its last vestige of morality