Even in the long, inglorious history of trumped-up causes, the idea that American clergy members are persecuted by the government for speaking their minds takes the cake.

The executive order President Trump signed Thursday in the White House Rose Garden, surrounded by a who’s who of the 1980s-era Christian right, focused on one of his signature issues with conservative evangelicals: restricting the so-called Johnson Amendment, a tax code provision that theoretically prevents clergy members from endorsing candidates from the pulpit or using other church resources to do so. Those who violate this rule risk having their tax-exempt status revoked.

In reality, over the past half-century since the Johnson Amendment became law, a grand total of just one church has lost its special tax status — and that after an episode of blatant electioneering.

The Internal Revenue Service has occasionally investigated other congregations without taking action. But the most recent case took place during George W. Bush’s administration and involved not a conservative evangelical institution but a cornerstone of liberal Protestantism: All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif.