In an announcement this Tuesday, the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) called on the IRS to investigate a Miami megachurch for planning to hold a rally for President Trump, Law & Crime reports.
According to the group, the Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús’s (King Jesus International Ministry’s) rally is a violation of the Johnson Amendment, which bars tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations from participating in political activity.
“IRS regulations specify that 501(c)(3) organizations, which include churches and other religious organizations, are prohibited from ‘participating in or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office,’” FFRF’s Legal Director Rebecca Markert wrote in a letter to the IRS’s Acting Director of Exempt Organizations Examinations, Mary A. Epps. “While leaders of churches or religious organizations may express their opinions on political matters as individuals, they are, according to this rule, precluded from making ‘partisan comments in official organization publications or at official functions of the organization.’”
The church's pastor, Honduran-born Guillermo Maldonado, says that his church was hand-picked by Trump to hold the upcoming “Evangelicals for Trump” rally, which will feature around 70 Christian pastors. Maldonado, whose followers include many undocumented immigrants, said that his undocumented congregants won't have to worry about being deported if they attend the rally.
“I will give you an affirmation as your spiritual father and your pastor,” he said at this Sunday’s service. “First, someone said, ‘But how can you bring Trump to church if there’s people who don’t have papers?’"
“I ask you: Do you think I would do something where I would endanger my people? I’m not that dumb,” he added.
