Daily News Roundup: 4,000 Faith Leaders Urge Congress to Retain Pulpit-Politicking Ban

Religious Coalition Calls for Keeping Johnson Amendment: More than 4,000 clergy and lay leaders across a range of faiths signed a letter to Congress that defends the tax law barring partisan politicking by churches and charities and urges lawmakers to resist President Trump’s promise to lift the ban, Religion News Service reports.

Apple Gives $2 Million to Anti-Extremist Groups as CEO Criticizes Trump: Tim Cook announced the donation, split between the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, in a memo to Apple staff that condemned “the president and others who believe that there is a moral equivalence between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them by standing up for human rights.”

Opinion: Proposed Tax Overhaul Could Damage Disaster Relief: Changes that would effectively reduce the number of people itemizing to claim a tax break on donations would cut deeply into giving to the American Red Cross and other emergency-aid and human-services charities, Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern writes in a Huffington Post column calling on Congress to enact a universal charitable deduction. Read a Chronicle article on nonprofit leaders’ tax advocacy on Capitol Hill.

Trump Poised to Unwind Obamacare Rule Opposed by Faith Groups: Federal health officials are set to finalize a draft regulation allowing any employer with moral or religious objections to birth control to opt out of the Affordable Care Act mandate that workplace health plans cover contraceptive services, reports The Wall Street Journal (subscription). Religious charities have sued to be exempt from the mandate, despite a workaround under which the government pays for and provides such coverage.

Facebook Adds Feature to Fundraise for Birthdays: The new tool allows users to add a charitable component to the birthday reminders that go out to people in their social networks each year, automatically including a request for donations to a favored cause, tech-news site VentureBeat writes.