A lot of people, especially on the liberal side of politics, are really hard up with the idea of taxing churches, and it looks like that may be coming closer and closer to a reality in some places. The taxing of religious organizations and their people is really driven mostly by the anti-religious freedom side, whose goal is to persecute religion and spirituality out of business, but there's another reality at play here, one that the proponents of taxation don't actually realize they are manifesting because they're so determined to hurt those they dislike.
Think about it, when it comes to taxation in the United States, what kind of government do we have? We have taxation with representation. This means we can put our voices into the legislative process, especially when our money is involved. One of the big reasons the founders of our country rebelled is because there was no representation with taxation in the British government.
If you tax the churches, the separation between church and state will be null and void; it will vanish forever. You won't be able to just take their money and push them out the back door. It doesn't work that way. They will be able to argue that they should have a say in something which they have to fund. If they are taxed, they will be able to insert their religiously based voices into government and the legislative process to which they are contributing money. It also means that minority religious organizations may shut down because they can't afford the taxes. In the end, the remaining religious power will be the radical Christian Right, who will then be in the government, and eager to put your civil rights on the chopping block. We will eventually turn into a kind of semi-theocracy, driven by monotheistic and biblical dictation, and we will slowly but surely cease to be free.
Mark my words, please. Although, I pray I never have to use them as a reference for the old I Told You So. Keeping the churches tax exempt isn't submission to them. It's keeping them out of government and to themselves where they belong.
In the Goodness of the Gods,
Chris Aldridge.
