Florida goes completely fruitcake.

[elfs]

The Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida has filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming that the state's sales tax exemption for Bibles and other religious publications is unconstitutional. The basis for the suit is that Christian bookstores are routinely granted waivers from the state, but New Age bookstores and specifically LeVay's The Satanic Bible have never received similar exemptions.

Religious Right organizations have filed various amicus curiae with the court because, naturally, they want to reserve special rights to their religion and grant it priveleges not granted others. As the head of the state's Christian Coalition put it, "I don't see any comparison between scripture and some metaphysical nonsense."

Even more alarming is the president of the Liberty Council, who warned the Wiccans not to take their case to the Supreme Court: "In case the Wiccans haven't realized it, if they haven't been watching the news, the court has changed. We have a new day, and certainly this Supreme Court is not going to look with enthusiasm when it comes to taxing religion."

But this isn't about taxing religion: this is about treating all religious organizations equally, about not one being granted a special privilege denied to others.

It's pure tribal politics, and it needs to be shoved into their faces: No Special Rights For Christians. If they want to scream that fair housing and employment for gays and lesbians is a "special right," then they should be made as uncomfortable as possible when they beg for exemptions from the law.

Hat tip to the ever-observant Ed Brayton. You might also wince at the original Liberty Council article.

Comments

[mo-hair.livejournal.com]

not to stand on either side of this particular case, it does beg a legal question regarding the definition of religious insitutions. we unitarian universalists have had difficulty obtaining tax expempt status for some churches (the ones in texas come to mind, no surprise there) we are found to not be an established religion since we do not have a creed. of course we think this is a pile of, well you know. but certainly there must be some burden of proof to lay claim to the title "religion." that being said, i certainly agree that either we either need to tax religion or not tax it. and that would be what we grads of catholic university (yes, i survived with my sanity) refer to as religion with a little "r" (meaning all religions) versus religion with the big "R" (meaning the religion to which an individual belongs.)

i really hope that made sense; i think i need more coffee...

[mothball-07.livejournal.com]

This is precisely why tax exemptions for religion are a bad idea. There is no plausible argument I've ever heard for an actual reason religions should be exempted, except "to support religion" which is inherently a questionable rationale. So long as such benefits exist, there will be arguments about what is, and is not, a religion, and the government will be too involved in what should be a private matter.

It would be much better for all if the special rights for religions went away (which inherently addresses the special rights for *some* religions). People would be *more* free to practice religion as they see fit without government influence, since the government would be less concerned with definitions.

Still wouldn't help with things like peyote, but it would be a step in the right direction.

[kengr]

Actually, there are very good reasons. And when the US Constitution was written (and the Bill of Rights set up) those reasons were a *lot* more recent.

It hadn't been that long since Britain had taxed Catholics. And possibly others who didn't belong to the Church of England. And the taxes were deliberately intended to be discriminatory and at least somewhat painful.

So unless you can find a way to make the taxes impact Big Religion and small covens (or whatever) equally, you have to not tax any religion.

If you don't you *will* find the mainstream religions doing there damndest to tax the "oddball" ones out of existence.

[mothball-07.livejournal.com]

It seems pretty simple to me. They're taxed at the same rates any other business would be taxed at... no special status. Those issues have already been (theoretically) handled for business.

The other option would be to eliminate taxes entirely, but that's a much more radical idea.

[kengr]

Not all "businesses" are taxed. So-called "non-profit" groups don't get taxed as long as they obey the rules.

Having been the treasurer for a branch of one sort, I'm *way* too familiar with the rules for some sorts and parttially familiar with thoise for the other types.

As I recall, religious and charitable organizations fall under the same category. The other two types are "educational", and "social/fraternal".

There are reasons for not taxing those sorts of groups asa well. And there really are restrictions on what can and can't be done without losing the tax-exempt status.

On the whole, I think abolishing the various sort of "non-profit" groups would probably not be a good idea. But I can see simplifying the rules a bit and enforcing them better.

[zanfur.livejournal.com]

Official stance of the Church of Satan is that is to be run as a secular organization. They don't want that tax break for their bible.

Just sayin'.

Given the recent rulings...

[norikos-author.livejournal.com]

I'm betting the Liberty Council's in for a shock. Consider that the _current_ SC just declared that the government couldn't stop a church from using a hallucinogenic tea in their sacraments...