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Since the beginning of the nation’s founding, religious organizations enjoyed tax exempt status. At first, it was unofficial, but that changed in 1894 when Congress passed the Tariff Act officially exempting religious organizations from paying taxes The reason for exempting them was because there was a concern that it may appear to violate the Separation of Church and State doctrine enshrined in the 1st Amendment. But that Separation doctrine is a two-way street.
Taxes are not just a legal requirement for citizens, it is a civic duty to pay them. Taxes pay for federal, state and local goods and services that benefit the community and/or society as a whole. Things like infrastructure (roads, bridges, rail service) and national defense, as well as local law enforcement, emergency services, etc. Since we all benefit, we all must pay our share…all except for religious organizations and other Charitable non-profits that are classified as 502c (3)’s.
Lately, however, those “Separation of Church and State” lines have become blurred and almost indistinguishable. CatholicVoice, for example, just launched a multi-million-dollar campaign against the candidacy of Kamala Harris in support of candidate Trump. And the secret Christian Nationalist group known as Ziklag, a network of ultrawealthy Christian donors is spending nearly $12 million to mobilize Republican-leaning voters and purge more than a million people from the rolls in key swing states, aiming to tilt the 2024 election in favor of former President Donald Trump by using use controversial AI software to enable mass challenges to the eligibility of voters. The name is a biblical reference to the city of Ziklag which was where David and his soldiers found refuge during their war with King Saul.
Much like the secrecy initially surrounding the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, Ziklag has been secretly at work trying to turn America into a Christian theocracy. They boast wealthy conservative Christian donors like the billionaire Uihlein family, who made a fortune in office supplies (ULINE), the Greens, who run Hobby Lobby, and the Wallers, who own the Jockey apparel corporation. Recipients of Ziklag’s largesse include Alliance Defending Freedom, which is the Christian legal group that led the overturning of Roe v. Wade, plus the national pro-Trump group Turning Point USA and an array of right-wing advocacy groups.
“Documented,” the investigative watchdog and journalism project, recently obtained thousands of Ziklag’s members-only email newsletters, internal videos, strategy documents and fundraising pitches, none of which has been previously made public. They revealed the group’s 2024 plans and its long-term goal to underpin every major segment of influence in American society with Christianity.
IN one of their strategy documents that lays out their 30-year vision to “redirect the trajectory of American culture toward Christ by bringing back Biblical structure, order and truth to our Nation.”, they state, “We are in a spiritual battle and locked in a terrible conflict with the powers of darkness.”
One of the prongs on their multi-state attack is to pour money into mobilizing voters in Arizona who are “sympathetic to Republicans” in order to secure “10,640 additional unique votes” — almost the exact margin of President Joe Biden’s win there in 2020.
Given the fact that these religious groups have blatantly crossed the “Separation” divide and are fervently now political PACs essentially; albeit, with no Election Commission oversight, and given the additional fact that they benefit from the same services and goods rendered by federal, state, and local governments that the rest of society has to pay for, I think it’s long past time to tax them. If churches were to be taxed, it would raise nearly $86 Billion a year.
Of course, their argument would be that it violates the 1st amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom, but that would be a false flag. The reality is that by giving them special exemptions while still providing them all the services that the rest of society has to pay for, we are, in fact, subsidizing religion.
Since these groups have already pushed themselves into a seat at the table that the rest of us are required to pay for, I think it is only fair that they pay for their seat just like all of us are required to do.
Grocery stores are not required to give them free food…. Utility Companies are not required to provide them with free services…. Why should we provide them with goods and services, paid for by taxpayers, free of charge?
It is time to inject some sanity and fairness into this equation. If they are so interested in steering politics and changing the Constitutionally guaranteed right of religious freedom, pay the price for admission…otherwise, stay in your lane and keep your comments and faith-based messages reserved for your congregation from the pulpit.