For Independence Day, let's re-visit a patriotic topic --

TAXING "RELIGIOUS" BUSINESSES/CHURCHS

There were practically no Federal taxes in early America - most Federal
government money was raised by customs or tariffs on imports. It wasn't
until the Civil War that the Federal govt started invoking income taxation.
It was in 1916 that Federal income taxation really got going.

In the US nowadays, it's the Congress, the IRS and the various states that
establish laws and practices regarding taxation of religious institutions.

The Constitution has language about separation of church and state. At a
time when nobody else was paying income taxes, to force churches to pay
taxes obviously would have been selective and punitive.

Nowadays, when almost all people and institutions DO PAY TAXES, to exempt
churches from paying is obviously selectively supportive.

Exempting churches from taxation, but still supporting them with services
like police, fire, etc., etc., is obviously a form of selective support -
other people and institutions have to pay for public services through taxes,
but churches don't - that's *support*.

Churches are businesses that do a great deal of false advertising, and
should be taxed and held to the same standards as other businesses in the
US.

BOTTOM LINE - the tax exempt status of churches can be rescinded *without*
an amendment to the US Constitution.

The US Government is aiding religion by subsidizing it through giving it a
free ride - that should be reversed by imposing the usual taxes on all
churches, with no favor or disfavor for any particular myth system.

For more on the argument to tax churches:
http://www.daylightatheism.org/2006/10/tax-the-churches.html