Dear Diary,
Today I finally found answers to a complex request, concerning the "public benefit" that results from "Tax exempt" status of religious organizations. (Cite as: 22 Cumb. L. Rev. 521)
INTRODUCTION
One commentator has written that "[i]t is easier to admire the motives for [a religious tax] exemption than to justify it by any sound argument." [FN1] Nonetheless, tax exemptions for religious institutions are a matter of longstanding historical practice despite the current controversy. The matter is often debated in the United States, at both federal and state levels, due to a lack of clear consensus regarding the proper basis for such tax exemptions in this country.
One basis for the exemption is due regard for tradition and respect for the test of time as evidenced in history. However, as one commentator laments, a "current, comprehensive history of tax exemption in the West remains sorely needed." [FN2] Other bases for the exemption may be found in the United States Constitution. Yet another basis might be theological. " S ome church people have expressed uneasiness with ... a pragmatic, utilitarian sort of rationale for tax exemption of churches .. feeling that the churches' mandate must be biblical and theological rather than legal and sociological." [FN3] A contrary perspective holds that:
[T]ax exemption is not a biblical or theological precept; the churches will attempt to preach and live the Gospel of Christ whether taxed or not, and have done so in many lands under many diverse regimes throughout the centuries, and they will continue to do so. Tax exemption is a legal and sociological *522 arrangement, and the only appropriate rationale for it is pragmatic, utilitarian, prudential. Furthermore, this argument is addressed not just to churches and those who accept their biblical and theological mandate, but it is designed to be useful to them in explaining their situation to those who do not necessarily accept that mandate. Therefore, it must be based on data and assumptions that are available to the wider community and which are a common grist for civic discourse. [FN4]
Part I reviews tax exemptions for religious institutions in various historical settings. [FN5] Part II of this article analyzes Supreme Court tax exemption jurisprudence relative to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Part III discusses the Court's treatment of religious tax exemptions in the context of the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause. Part IV examines religious tax exemptions in relation to the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
For more information http://www.acluprocon.org/SupCtCases/193Walz.html.
