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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The reason government gives tax breaks to religions is technically because it is charity and non-profit.   It has develped into a tool for government to coerce as well which the state likes.  Flat tax is the way to go.  It will never happen because it is too efficient and fair. The  dislike for efficiency, fairness and common sense is why we are going to go over the cliff finacially.  Economic collapse is not an if but a when.[/quote]
As usual, let me emphasize that I'm no expert, but I thought churches are tax-exempt because taxation can be construed as "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion, thus violating the First Amendment.  Here's a quote from an LA Times article ([url]http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-oew-lynn-stanley23-2008sep23,0,2226105.story[/url]):
[quote]In its 1970 opinion in Walz vs. Tax Commission of the City of New York, the high court stated that a tax exemption for churches "creates only a minimal and remote involvement between church and state and far less than taxation of churches. [An exemption] restricts the fiscal relationship between church and state, and tends to complement and reinforce the desired separation insulating each from the other." The Supreme Court also said that "the power to tax involves the power to destroy." Taxing churches breaks down the healthy separation of church and state and leads to the destruction of the free exercise of religion.[/quote][/quote]

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