Fox News: IRS Law Against Churches Endorsing Politicians ‘An Assault On People Of Faith’

Fox News co-host Tucker Carlson says that the IRS enforcing a half-century old law prohibiting churches from endorsing politicians is designed to “crush” them, and is “an assault on people of faith” by atheists.

Tucker Carlson is best-known as the former co-host of CNN’s original “Crossfire” political news show, and the target of a famous takedown by Jon Stewart when the “Daily Show” host appeared live and asked him to “stop hurting America.” Shortly thereafter CNN announced it was not renewing Carlson’s contract and was canceling the show.

Fast forward a decade. Carlson is even more of a “political hack,” as Stewart accused, than he was at CNN. He is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Daily Caller, a Breitbart-esque political news site that is wildly partisan and far-right-leaning.

But Carlson is also the weekend co-host of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” and on Saturday hosted a wildly fact-less segment attacking the IRS for enforcing the law — something Fox News regularly attacks the Obama administration for not doing. 

Clearly, the concept of separation of church and state seems foreign to Carlson.

The law Carlson claims atheists are using to “crush” churches is 1954’s Johnson Amendment, named for then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, which prohibits tax-exempt groups, including churches and other non-profits, from endorsing political candidates.

The IRS recently settled with the Freedom From Religion Foundation after the group sued when the IRS announced it would not enforce the law. The IRS agreed to investigate charges of law-breaking by non-profits — in other words, it would do its job — as part of its settlement.

The Raw Story reports on Carlson’s wild accusations:

On Saturday, Tucker Carlson told Pajamas Media Legal Editor J. Christian Adams that this was another examples of “liberal politicians, liberal groups asking the IRS to crush organizations that they don’t agree with.”

“They want to use IRS as a weapon against Christianity, against faith,” Adams agreed. “Using the power of government to go after faith, that’s what it’s about. Sure, there are going to be churches in the South that go after Democrats, but it’s a much bigger and far more dangerous campaign they’re on.”

“This is basically an assault on people of faith,” Carlson opined.

“They want to turn belief in constitutional principles, belief in God into a political thing,” Adams declared. “They want to use the IRS to go after people who express their faith from the pulpit and urge action. That’s the important part, they want people who believe to shut up.”

At no point did Carlson mention that the IRS is legally-obligated to enforce the law — nor did he even mention there is a 60-year old law in place prohibiting electioneering or endorsement of politicians.

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