Do YOU think it's time to end the tax exempt status of churches?

[Scootaloo]

54. The reason they were exempt in the first place...

Is that when this was written, ministers and preachers primarily lived off the generosity of their congregations who were, for the most part not too wealthy, themselves. These churches actually took the idea of "Christian charity" seriously, as well; no matter how ramshackle the church, a beggar could at least ask a bowl of soup or a dry place to spend the night.

And in truth, I support tax exemption under that logic. However a lot has changed in the last 236 years, and this is no longer the standard for the majority of churches. Granted there are plenty of small, charitable churches in communities across America. But there are also more than anyone's fair share of monumental temples to wealth, as well.

It's an innovation that the writers of the law centuries ago did not and probably could not have predicted, and it needs to be adressed; I just have no idea how.

Perhaps tie tax rates to actual charitable practice. The bigger an unconditional slice of the tithe you return to the community (i.e., no religious strings attached to your charity), the lower your taxes are.