Should Churches be Tax Exempt?

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The likelihood of a consensus forming against the churches on this matter is unlikely given the diversity of opinions on controversial issues such as abortion and gay marriage.? However, with the powerful public voice of groups like the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as non-aligned religious non-profits such as Focus on the Family and the American Family Association, there will very likely be challenges made to tax exempt status over the 'gay rights' issue.?

It may well be that some court will find some apostolate or ministry guilty of pushing a message about homosexuality that is not in the public interest, or actually in violation of a law, such as the upcoming bill against hate crimes. In that case, the support for tax exemption in some churches, at least, will face a challenge. But, if and when the courts start going down that road, the warning of Chief Justice Warren Burger will no doubt be pondered.   

In the 1970 case of Walz v. Tax Commissioner of New York, the Supreme Court upheld the tax exemption for churches against a challenge that the exemption forced an individual to support indirectly a religious organization. Chief Justice Burger argued that governmental involvement with religion existed with or without the exemption and that "elimination of the exemption would tend to expand the involvement of the government by giving rise to tax valuation of church property, tax liens, tax foreclosures, and the direct confrontations and conflicts that follow in the train of those legal processes." Upholding the tax exemption, according to Burger, insured that the government would steer clear of interference in church affairs.