bearsoffaith (original) (raw)

Cross-posted from FaceBook:

Recently, the Roman Catholic archdiocesan administration of Washington, DC, made it known to the world that, should DC become a place where same-sex marriage is allowed, they would be so overcome with grief and so burdened with prayer and fasting that they would not be able to fulfill the responsibilities they'd taken on of feeding and housing some of the city's homeless. Or something like that.

My motto has long been What do your religious beliefs have to do with my rights as a citizen? There's a FaceBook fan page dedicated to revoking tax protections for politically active churches, that lots of my friends are joining. I, too, joined, but upon reflection, I un-joined. Here are some thoughts on the matter, some my own, some borrowed from others.

First, our own (meaning us liberals--and I'm proud to call myself one) anger over political or judicial defeats is a completely separate issue than some churches' inappropriate or illegal actions. I'm in favor of having churches that overstep their bounds investigated, but there is more to look at here. And focusing our anger at churches diverts our attention from other places that need attention.

Do we want to design and build a weapon that most surely will be used against us? Do you think the government would go after RC bishops telling the faithful whom to vote for first? I don't. Nope, the right-wing watchdogs would be ever vigilant for any hint of political content among what they think are left-wing churches, and for every message of love and respect there would be thousands of complaints to the IRS. And the squeaky wheel gets the grease, no matter who's driving.

No, I don't think any such revocation of tax protections would gain us lefties what we're looking for. Frankly, I can't see it flying through Congress. But it also brings up the question of whether churches should enjoy such protections at all. Do we want all churches to pay taxes? Lots of people I know say yes, but I'm not so sure. First, that would force all churches, right-wing or not, to cut back on badly needed social programs. We need those homeless shelters and those church-supported social workers and those church-supported hospitals. True, they could be supported in other ways, but they're not, and they're not gonna be. And, as a musician, I don't want to see church support for the arts cut back either.

Also, to borrow a point from omero_hassan, if churches pay taxes, they will be entitled to have a say. He writes, "...if they have nothing left to lose in this regard, and they can nakedly engage in the political process against us, we can expect to lose worse than we already are."

Our anger is perfectly valid. We have a right to it. But I don't think this is the way to express it. Yes, call out cases of inappropriate or illegal behavior, but let's also focus on political or judicial strategies for the future, and on working to frame public discourse about rights as

actual discourse about rights

.