COLUMBIA, S.C. — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump believes churches should not lose their tax-exempt status for engaging in political activity, telling the Christian Broadcasting Network that he believes more faith leaders would endorse him if they didn’t feel threatened.

“I know people who want to endorse me, but they’re afraid to endorse anybody because they don’t want to get political. So essentially, they’ve taken a lot of the power away from the church,” Trump told CBN’s “Brody File” in an interview published Thursday.

“I see churches where they’re afraid to be outspoken because they don’t want to lose their tax-exempt status, and I realize that is one of the problems,” he said. “I want to give power back to the church because the church has to have more power. Christianity is really being chopped; little by little it’s being taken away.”