Date of Award
2025
Degree Type
Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation
Degree Name
Political Science, PhD
Program
School of Social Science, Politics, and Evaluation
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Jean Reith Schroedel
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Mark Blitz
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Jon Shields
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2025 Joey A Torres
Keywords
Christian Right, Church-State Relations, Evangelicalism, Internal Revenue Service, Moral Knowledge, Social Movements
Subject Categories
Political Science
Abstract
The Pulpit Freedom Sunday (PFS) Initiative represents one of the most pointed challenges to IRS restrictions on church political activity in modern American history. At its core, PFS was not merely an act of pastoral resistance but a carefully orchestrated legal strategy, spearheaded by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), designed to provoke a constitutional confrontation over the Johnson Amendment, the federal statute prohibiting 501(c)(3) organizations from engaging in campaign intervention. Yet the significance of PFS extends well beyond tax law. It reflects deeper anxieties about the perceived disappearance of moral knowledge from public life, the evolving role of clergy as political actors, and the uneasy place of religious authority within a secularizing political order. This dissertation examines these questions through a mixed-methods analysis of sermons delivered from 1990 to 2024, focusing on Calvary Chapel Chino Hills (CCCH), a PFS participant, and Grace Community Church (GCC), which did not participate. Employing computer-aided text analysis (CATA) using MAXQDA24 and DICTION 7.2, supplemented by manual coding, interrupted time series (ITS) analysis, and qualitative interviews with ADF attorneys and PFS pastors, this study assesses whether participation in PFS corresponded with measurable shifts in political messaging from the pulpit. In doing so, it explores the broader motivations behind PFS—motivations that blended theological conviction, legal strategy, and partisan allegiance. Contrary to the prevailing assumption that pulpit politicking is simply an expression of partisan allegiance, the evidence suggests a more complicated reality. While partisan motivations were undeniably present, many pastors also understood their political engagement as a theological necessity, rooted in the belief that defending biblical truth required active intervention in public life. Participation in PFS was not seen as a departure from pastoral duty but as an extension of it—an act of “gap-filling” in a society where moral knowledge had eroded. For these pastors, politics was not merely a civic sphere to influence, but a battleground for preserving transcendent moral order against the forces of secular relativism. Yet PFS also illuminated the complex regulatory environment churches face under the Johnson Amendment. Analysis of IRS enforcement practices, guidance documents, and case law reveals significant “gray areas” in the application of the law, particularly concerning the distinction between issue advocacy and campaign intervention. This ambiguity has exposed the reality that violations of 501(c)(3) restrictions are not unique to evangelical churches. Mainline Protestant churches, often overlooked in discussions of political engagement, also cross regulatory lines—though typically in more subtle ways. Recognizing this broader pattern challenges narratives that frame evangelicals as the primary or sole offenders and invites a more nuanced understanding of how religious institutions across the theological spectrum navigate the tensions between faith, law, and politics. Historically, American clergy have long influenced political life, from the colonial period through the Civil Rights Movement. Yet PFS is distinctive in that it emerged within a theologically conservative evangelicalism that, for much of the twentieth century, was hesitant to mix the sacred with the political. The rise of the Religious Right, growing cultural polarization, and mounting perceptions of government hostility toward religious expression created conditions for a more assertive and confrontational form of evangelical political activism. PFS provided not just a theological rationale but a practical legal framework for pastors willing to cross longstanding boundaries separating church and state. Despite widespread participation, the IRS largely refrained from enforcement, leaving the Johnson Amendment intact but effectively unenforced. This outcome raises critical questions about the limits of legal activism, the strategic choices of government agencies, and the complex entanglement of religion and politics in contemporary America. To assess the practical effects of PFS, this dissertation undertakes a longitudinal analysis of sermon content at CCCH and GCC over thirty-four years. Dictionary-based content analysis and ITS models reveal that while CCCH engaged sporadically in political discourse prior to 2008, PFS marked an inflection point. Post-PFS sermons increasingly emphasized the “biblical vote,” framing specific policy positions—opposition to abortion, support for Israel, and rejection of LGBTQIA+ rights—as non-negotiable duties for Christian voters. Statistical analysis confirms a significant rise in campaign intervention mentions and election-related discourse, particularly during election years. Theoretically, the dissertation draws on James W. Ceaser’s foundational concepts— religion, nature, and history—to situate evangelical political rhetoric. PFS participants justified their actions through appeals to biblical revelation and divine providence, while remaining skeptical of Enlightenment-based appeals to nature or reason as sufficient foundations for moral and political order. Their engagement reflects an underlying tension between American liberalism’s procedural commitments and a deeper desire for substantive moral realism rooted in transcendent truth. Ultimately, this dissertation challenges the notion that pulpit politicking among evangelicals can be understood solely as a function of theological conviction or partisan interest. It demonstrates that movements like PFS arise when the boundary between religious duty and political strategy collapses—and when clergy, perceiving a moral vacuum in public life, claim a prophetic voice within the political arena. Yet it also raises a fundamental question for the American experiment: how closely can religion and politics approach one another before the two become indistinguishable, blurring the line between prophetic witness and political power?
ISBN
9798315737780
Recommended Citation
Torres, Joey Adrian. (2025). God’s Chosen Candidate Pulpit Freedom Sunday and the Reshaping of Evangelical Political Mobilization, Pulpit Politicking, and Church-State Relations. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 973. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/973.
