The Free Speech Fairness Act, introduced Monday by Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Rep. Mark Harris (R-N.C.), would neutralize the 1954 Johnson Amendment and “clarify” that “pastors have the same free speech rights as everyone else,” Lankford announced on “Washington Watch.” “We need to make sure this is very clear: the IRS doesn’t have the authority to go monitor the speech of pastors and of church leaders. Let’s have them do tax collection. That’s what their job is, not monitoring free speech.”

Lankford introduced the bill based on the simple conviction that “pastors should be able to preach the word of God,” he said. “They should not have to worry about an IRS agent sitting in their congregation monitoring their speech, to make sure they don’t mention something in politics in their sermon. That’s absurd. We’re the United States of America. Pastors have First Amendment rights, just like every single American has First Amendment rights.”

The founding generation that approved the Bill of Rights would have recognized that pastors have a duty to faithfully preach the word of God, independent of any governmental permission or obligation. Paul charged Timothy “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:1-2). Paul bases this comprehensive command to preach not on any human government but in the character of the one, true God, and in the certainty of the final judgment.

The point seems so clear that it’s fair to ask, “Why are we even discussing this at all?” Lankford continued. The answer lies in the vengeful proclivities of one dominating politician of the past, then-U.S. Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson. “Decades ago, something was added to the IRS rules called the Johnson Amendment that says if a church endorses some political candidate — and again, that’s up to the interpretation of the IRS agent … — then they could actually have IRS take away their nonprofit status,” explained Lankford.

Because of this amendment, “churches often live in fear of something that has literally never happened to any church,” he added.

Left-wing political activists often use this fear to their advantage. “Something that happens very frequently,” observed Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, is that “those on the Left … want to silence biblical truth. They will send out letters to pastors right before an election saying, ‘Look, if you violate this IRS law, you could lose your tax exemption.’” Pastors may not be sure about this, but in the moment they often choose to avoid such a costly risk. “And so, there’s a lack of clarity,” Perkins posited, “and it has the effect of self-censoring the pulpit.”

“It tries to make churches and church leaders live in fear of their own government, as if they don’t have First Amendment protections,” Lankford agreed. “Yet, churches that are more left-leaning — they talk about politics all the time. They endorse candidates all the time and don’t live in fear of the IRS because there’s a belief that they have, ‘They’re not going to come after us; we’re on the Left.’ [The IRS is] only going to come after churches on the right.”

“Now, I don’t believe pastors should preach politics all the time. I think they should talk about Jesus and salvation and the goodness and grace of God all the time. I think that should be their obsession,” Lankford clarified. “But when things like abortion come up, or marriage comes up … or when there’s an election coming, and they encourage people to go vote or say, ‘There’s an obvious candidate here that shares our values,’ they shouldn’t be restrained from that either.”

“The word of God speaks to practically every aspect of life,” Perkins concurred. “And so, when those issues are touched upon in the Scripture, we need to be able to preach freely upon them.”

Unfortunately, the Free Speech Fairness Act faces a nearly insurmountable hurdle from the Democratic Senate minority, whose pro-abortion members benefit from the Johnson Amendment’s chilling effect against churches that remain faithful to biblical teaching on abortion and marriage.

Lankford has been seeking bipartisan support for his free speech bill, but he admitted he had “not found it yet.” Instead, “even folks … on the Left [who] come out of a ministry background like the opportunity for the government to be able to reach in and to be able to dictate” what pastors can say.

This simply underscores why a bill clarifying pastors’ protections under the First Amendment is needed. “People just want it to be resolved. It’s clearly unconstitutional,” Lankford concluded. “And so, this [bill] gives the opportunity for [pastors] to just freely speak as every other American.”