It will not be long before tax exemptions for churches are revoked, Damon Linker, of The Week, says in an opinion column.
“Once the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision declaring a constitutional right to same-sex marriage is combined with laws banning discrimination against homosexuals — which already exist in well over a dozen states and are coming soon at the federal level — the case for eliminating religious tax exemptions could be powerful,” he writes.
Under the Internal Revenue Code, churches are tax-exempt as non-profit enterprises. Churches do not have to pay federal income taxes and donors are able to deduct their donations from their taxable income.
“Churches were exempted because they were presumed to play the vitally important social role — a role essential to self-government — of inculcating moral virtue in citizens,” Linker says.