REAL int'restin'---NHRA lawsuit
I think churchs should have to pay taxes............
I'm not sure I agree (but then again, I don't necessarily disagree, either); it seems to me a sound argument can be made that exempting legitimate religious organisations from taxes is the price we all pay for freedom of religion.
HOWEVER, my mind gets made up real quick in cases where religious organisations actively participate in the political process, lobby or put money up or otherwise contribute to passing particular laws or regulations or ballot initiatives. Supposedly they can't do that and keep their tax-exempt status, but it happens all the time, bigtime, and it shouldn't. Religious organisations need to choose: either they keep well and truly
out of politics, or they are tax-exempt. One or the other, not both.
And likewise, for-profit "religions" (Scientology, etc.) need to be taxed just like any other for-profit business.
Strikes me it's also possible to make a good argument that religious organisations that exert more than reasonable and normal costs to taxpayers need to be presented with the bill and made to pay up. Churches that routinely and habitually harbor and protect child-molesting clergy and actively block police investigation of same, for example.
