I’m talking about religious tax-deductibility, in general, as a curb on free speech—plain and simple. Like most government ‘give-aways,’ there are strings, and those strings are silencing pastors, preachers, and teachers affiliated with those 501 (c)(3) organizations.
If the IRS laws were fair and logical (which, manifestly, they are not), tuition for private schools—whether religious-based or not—ought to be tax-deductible because the schools are displacing the failed government alternatives. But that has nothing to do with the religious end of the charitable (educational, in this case) deduction.
You ask me if I want state monopolies? Answer is of course not. Let me ask you—Do you want Canada’s laws on free speech?
Churches are non profits and therefore ought to be exempt. But they are more than that. If you read the First Amendment as a whole, notice that the religion clauses cannot be read apart from the free speech and free assembly and free press clauses. A church is also an association of citizens. In short, Lyndon Johnson’s law against political speech in churches is unconstitutional on the face of it, at least as it has been embedded into the Tax code. What ought to be no more than an acknowledgement of the liberty of the churches has been turned into a privilege bestowed on them by government. In short, the state has no right to tax the churches, and since the passage of the 14th Amendment, this includes the states as well.