EP 16: The Johnson Amendment of 1954

The Johnson Amendment of 1954 attempts to mitigate the direct support or opposition of candidates for elected office from the Church Pulpit? The secular environment agrees with the construct due to the "separation of Church and State", but they neglect the "Establishment Clause" of the First Amendment which places a prohibition against government, not the other way around. The Johnson Amendment is actually a short snippet of words included in a much larger Tax Code, that "supposedly" impacts the 501C3 status of Churches. However, what many people miss is that there are laws in place that place a prohibition on the IRS against acting as "pulpit police". 

So, how did the Johnson Amendment come about and why? What does the Johnson Amendment do, and what can it NOT do? How many times has the Johnson Amendment been applied?