New Way Christian Fellowship, located in Palm Coast, learned via a letter in June 2024 the IRS was conducting an investigation over its alleged violation of the Johnson Amendment.
That federal law forbids churches, due to their non-profit status, from endorsing political candidates.
According to First Liberty Institute, what got New Way in trouble happened two years earlier, in 2022. That was when a Flagler County school board member, Jill Woolbright, was invited by the church pastor to talk about her re-election campaign to the Sunday morning congregation. The pastor, Richard Summerlin, also praised her in front of the congregation then prayed over Woolbright with his wife.
A 2022 news story about Woolbright’s church appearance said she spoke at length about spiritual warfare in the local public school system, which she described as much too liberal.
She also praised other school board candidates, who she said are also conservative Christians. The school district needs a “conservative, God-fearing majority” on the school board, she told the church.
Woolbright would go on to narrowly lose re-election to challenger Sally Hunt, who defeated the incumbent 51%-48%.
For becoming involved in the political race, the IRS letter informed Summerlin he had engaged in “political campaign intervention activities” that are prohibited under IRS rules for non-profits, meaning the Johnson Amendment.
On behalf of New Way, attorneys at First Liberty and at law firm Jones Day fired off an eight-page letter to the IRS defending the church from the IRS investigation. The letter, which was written in response to IRS questions directed at New Way and Pastor Summerlin, instead defended the church’s First Amendment right to conduct its worship service however it wished to. After a conference call with attorneys from First Liberty and New Day, the federal agency chose to end the investigation and informed the church via letter it was doing so.
First Liberty attorney Hiram Sasser points out the first IRS letter came in the middle of a presidential race last summer, when Democrat Kamala Harris seemed to be speaking at a majority-black church every Sunday morning.
“I think we've all seen, whether it is your favorite politician or your least favorite politician,” he says, “all of them have at some point ended up on the stage of a church somewhere.”
That is especially true for Democrats in public office, and also true at majority-black churches, which have been a crucial and reliable voting bloc for Democrats going back decades.
Last summer, at the same time the IRS told New Way to explain the “purpose for allowing Jill Woolbright to speak at an official church function,” numerous black preachers across the country got caught reciting the same talking points about Harris’ campaign fundraising from the pulpit.
