I say remove the tax exempt status of churches and charities. Let there be no examination of what an organization does, other than that they don't violate the criminal law and file their taxes on time.

I agree with Ben.

I agree with Hans and Ben. Any form of tax exeption is a form of endorsement and support.

What about this?

Wow. I'm surprised more people/groups haven't acted on that to declare more places Clergy Residences.

I'd abolish it.

The point is, clergy should be able to say dingbat things from the pulpit without fearing financial repercussions (other than the simple after-effects of antagonizing their congregations).

And that means that there should be no tax exemption to worry about losing.

AND dingbat groups like the Scientologists should be barred from receiving tax exemptions by taking a whacky sci-fi-based philosophy cult and turning it into a "religion" for profit and protection.

There is a large body of Scientology cases from, I think, the 1980s in the Ontario courts you may want to review.

So we're agreed -- others don't want to subsidize dingbat groups, and I want to preserve the freedom of dingbats to express their dingbattery, and so we compromise by saying that they ought to be liable for taxation just like any other citizen or group.

Awesome.

Again, I agree with Ben. (And he said it so eloquently, too!)

I clearly need to recruit more social conservatives...

Again, I agree with Ben and Hans.

I see that persons angry with the passing of Proposition 8 are a tad unhappy, and rightly so. They are starting a movement to strip the Mormon church of its staus as a religion or something like that. Three double ewes followed by mormonsstoleourright then a period then the word com.

The origin of separation of church and state is that there is no official government religion. Anything more is reading too much into the issue.

I don't really have an opinion on the tax question but I don't really see it related to the Title of the post.

Maybe because you haven't inquired very deeply into the question.

My issue with the tax thing is, a whole lot of discourse is chilled by the question, "Oh, no! Will we lose our tax exemption?"

So I want to protect the churches from the state.

Others say (justifiably), "Why are we subsidizing these people?"

And I say to any potential complainants, "If you don't like paying taxes, well, vote in some nice friendly libertarians who will cut taxes across the board!"

I just don't think anyone outside of individuals of low income deserve special tax status or breaks unless said special status or breaks helps the economy.

I have Alan, a Poli Sci degree and 6 years of working in the field in DC, I just don't care.

...I just don't care.

Which is why you aren't thinking that deeply about it.