By Lewis Loflin
Lewis Loflin here. I’ve long held that colleges and churches should pay taxes like everyone else—no free rides. Leiand W. Ruble’s piece below nails why religious tax exemptions are unfair, echoing my critiques in A Deist Critique of Anti-Christian Zealotry of unchecked influence. In 2025, with religious lobbies still flexing untaxed muscle, Ruble’s call for fairness holds up.
By Leiand W. Ruble
Should churches pay taxes? Most see religion as untouchable—a lifeline to an afterlife, promising rewards for faith and morality. Taxing it feels like sacrilege. Yet this exemption lets religion thrive without the burdens other groups face, peddling mysticism as if it’s above ideology.
Churches dodge taxes, claiming focus on Heaven and Hell, not earthly gain. This privilege builds a sanctimonious elite, raking in profit under a “non-profit” guise. If they were truly non-profit, most wouldn’t survive. The excuse? Taxing them might sway their work or stifle worship. Nonsense. If a faith can’t stand taxation, its message is too weak to matter.
James Madison warned of this in the U.S.’s infancy: “Are we awake to the precedents… of religious congregations holding property?” He saw small exemptions ballooning into unchecked power. Today’s vast church empires—properties, investments, and political sway—prove him right. Untaxed, they’re more threat to liberty than taxed restraint.
Why should myth-based groups skip taxes while we fund roads, courts, and police they use? Their influence—like the Christian Coalition’s lobbying—leans on untaxed cash, tilting laws their way. George Bush’s Desert Storm blessings from clergy show religion meddling in state affairs, all tax-free.
Jesus, per Luke 20:25, said, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s”—yet Christian leaders cling to exemptions, exposing greed and hypocrisy. Thomas Paine noted the church’s “pomp and revenue” mocks Jesus’s humility. Religions don’t bolster my freedom or yours; they exploit it. It’s time they pay their share—no aristocracy of thought deserves a pass.
Acknowledgment: Thanks to Grok, an AI by xAI, for aiding this draft. Final edits are mine.
