Would legalized same-sex marriage lead to withdrawal of tax exemptions from churches?
This may seem like a non-sequitur, but it may not be.
Under prior law, adjectives religious, charitable, etc. organizations were granted tax-exempt status. But along with civil rights legislation within the 1960s, the government withdrew tax examption from organization that discriminated on the basis of race.
Many same-sex marriage advocate liken opposition to the opponents of interracial marriage. So, if same-sex marital is made legal, would there be support for withdrawing tax exemptions from churches that discriminate on the reason of sexual orientation (such as by refusing to perform same sex marriages)?
Is this possible? Why or why not? Thanks.
Wow great question. I believe what would appear is all churches would be forced to do it. But then you have a problem next to the separation of Church and state issue. 1960 opened up churches to different races but truthfully who ever pressed that issue. Whites worship one way and Blacks do it pretty differently. But hey what's good for the goose is good for the gander vice versa. Separation of church and state
Even minus same-sex marriage being legal, the affairs of state has no right to dictate anything about who a religion has to marry. That would be a despoliation of the Constitution. So removing tax-exempt status from religions that refuse to marry same-sex couples would likewise be a violation, as it would be an attempt by the organization to make law regarding religion. I'm sure you wouldn't know how to find a religious group that was stripped of it's tax-exempt status due to racial discrimination. That would be nice.
Perhaps churches would finally realize that have that 501c3 puts them under the jurisdiction of the State and removes them from the jurisdiction of Jesus Christ.
Free churches (without a 501c3) are TAX IMMUNE! That's a helluva lot better than tax exempt, and the government have NO jurisdiction over what they do or don't do. They're subject only to common law and would solely be chargeable if they injured or damaged someone's person, property or reputation.
Sexual situation is not a 'protected class' of citizens. If a church opts not to marry individuals based on the lifestyle decisions of those indiviuals it is the church's perogative.



