WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — The lead pastor at a metro Grand Rapids megachurch got political in a recent sermon, urging his parishioners to run from the Democratic party.
That raises questions: Did he cross a legal line that could threaten his church’s tax-exempt status? And does the mere existence of that line violate his First Amendment right?
Rev. Duane Vander Klok, lead pastor at ResLife Church on Ivanrest Avenue SW at 52nd Street, preached about national politics. While he didn’t mention former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris by name, national experts who watched the sermon at Target 8’s request said it was clear which candidate he was urging his parishioners to support with their votes.
“We need to understand,” Vander Klok said in his sermon. “Elections are not about personalities. They’re about platforms.”
Under God, Divisible: Political conflict deepens rift among Christians Churches and other tax-exempt nonprofits are not allowed to endorse candidates.
Four years ago, it was Eric Trump who stumped for his father at an Evangelicals for Trump rally at ResLife .
On Sept. 29, Vander Klok delivered the message during his early sermon and online .
“I put a lot of titles on this message today,” Vander Klok told his congregation in one of the sermons posted on the church’s YouTube channel. “But I’ve come in the end, the Kingdom of God and Politics.
“Now somebody’s going to say, ‘Well, you’re just getting political,'” he continued. “I want you to listen to this. It’s not that the church has become political; it’s that politics has come into the realm of theology. That’s what’s happened. We haven’t moved. They’ve moved. They’ve come into our house. They’ve come into our life, so these things need to be addressed.
“Because you live in America, you can vote any way you want, but you will answer to God for how you vote. You’ll answer to God for how you vote.”
In graphics that appeared in the online sermon, he compared the Republican and Democratic parties on marriage and sexuality.
“Here’s God’s original design: one man, one woman,” he said. “Should you vote for a party that’s for all sorts of sexual perversion? Vote for a party that accepts transgenders into women’s restrooms and showers and in sports? Should you vote for a party that wants to cut off little girls’ breasts and tell them they’re a boy?”
“The antichrist is a homosexual,” he said. “It’s part of the antichrist spirit is sexual confusion.”
He compared the parties’ treatment of Jewish people and Israel.
“If you read the two platforms, they sound alike in many ways, but here’s the important difference: One platform, the Democrat platform, supports a negotiated two-state solution.”
He said that goes against God’s plan.
“If you do not run from the Democrat party for any other reason, you need to run because of a two-state solution,” he said to applause. “God says, ‘I will judge you for dividing the land.'”
He also pointed out the parties’ differences over abortion.
“Abortion is wrong, it’s wrong. It’s murder,” he said. “Now let me say something else, there is forgiveness. I’m not saying this to condemn anybody, but I’m just telling you that we have a party who wants to literally take all of the limits off, and I’m just encouraging you, run from that. Run from that. Vote kingdom of God.”
Rogers, Slotkin spar on economy, EVs, immigration in debate at WOOD TV8 A national expert who specializes in the intersection of religion and tax law says it appears the sermons violated the 1954 Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches and other nonprofits from endorsing political candidates.
“In the IRS’s view, probably he’s crossed over the line, probably he’s on the wrong side of the line,” said Samuel Brunson, a professor at Loyola University in Chicago.
“Using Trump’s name or using Harris’s name would have clearly been over the line,” he said. “The IRS believes that saying, ‘You should vote for a Republican or you should vote for a Democrat’ does cross the line.
“I don’t think it’s 100% clear, but I think it’s definitely clearly in the danger zone.”
Churches and other nonprofits that violate the amendment could lose their tax-exempt status.
But experts say that’s happened only once in 70 years: The Church at Pierce Creek in the state of New York lost its status after it took out newspaper ads in 1992 warning Christians not to vote for Bill Clinton.
“So the church is breaking a rule, a well-known rule, (but) it’s not going to face any consequences for that probably,” Brunson said of ResLife Church.
In response to an email from Target 8, the IRS said federal law prohibits it from commenting. It can’t say whether the church crossed the line or whether it would lead to an investigation or a warning.
Vander Klok refused Target 8’s repeated requests for comment.
Harris and Trump tied in Michigan a month from election, new poll shows John Vile, a constitutional law scholar at Middle Tennessee State University, says preaching on politics dates back to at least 1800, when New England pastors warned that Thomas Jefferson, accused by some of being an atheist, would seize their Bibles if elected. He didn’t.
“Part of the problem with the whole Johnson Amendment is enforcement,” Vile said. “We don’t have an established religion. Do we want people from the government coming into church services to hear what they’re saying?”
He said the ResLife sermon straddles the line of what is allowed.
“I think you could bring up a case under the Johnson Amendment. I don’t think you would win,” Vile said.
However, he said it’s clear the pastor was stumping for Trump.
“We need to understand,” Vander Klok said during his sermon at ResLife. “Elections are not about personalities. They’re about platforms.”
“I don’t know why he would have to say it if he weren’t thinking of Trump,” Vile said. “He’s basically saying, ‘Don’t worry about his character; he’s right on the issues.'”
ResLife is not alone. A Pew research survey in 2016 found 14% of churchgoers heard clergy support a presidential candidate. Back then, the survey showed, it was most likely to happen in Black Protestant churches in support of Hillary Clinton. During his 2020 presidential campaign, then-former Vice President Joe Biden spoke at New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson.
Trump has worked to eliminate the Johnson Amendment, signing an executive order in 2017 that, as it turned out, was ineffective since overturning the law would take an act of Congress.
A high-profile group of Christian organizations sued the IRS in August, claiming the rule violates the First Amendment.
“We’re talking about whether or not a church has the ability to have their pastor in the pulpit speaking on issues of great concern to the congregation, to the church, to its beliefs,” said Robert Tyler, president of Advocates for Faith and Freedom.
Tyler expects the U.S. Supreme Court would be asked to weigh in if the IRS starts strictly enforcing the law.
“What the Johnson Amendment does is it silences speakers, it silences speech,” Tyler said. “The silence of speech is just as egregious, if not even more egregious, than any other type of restriction on speech.”
The ResLife pastor ended his sermon with this message for his flock:
“I know some of you are mad, a few people left, it’s alright; you have to forgive me, you have to love me. Jesus said every time you pray, forgive. So if you need to forgive, forgive. I forgive you for walking out. I love you and just want you to do what Jesus wants you to do.”
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