Notice how fast “exemption” (not necessary in and of itself) faded from use into “accomodation”???
[Congress shall make no law respecting an ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION]
Aside from being a rock wall against messing with or forcing your beliefs that also means that they don’t have any taxing authority over them and the only thing declaring any sort of “tax exempt status” does to a church is create the situation where they enter into an agreement with the state.
The word “Establishment” is demonstrating a structure or group, like a drinking establishment.
Don’t fall into the leftist spin-trap.
The intent of the Establishment clause is to negate any government creating a State sanctioned religion to which everyone must agree (not attend, but agree).
It is not intended to be parsed into meaning a single, stand alone structure (an establishment).
It LEADS the 1st Amendment because \that\ is what the Founding Fathers father’s fled from Europe.
It LEADS the 1.A because a free people have a free conscience (hat tip to Martin Luther) in all aspects.
Life liberty and property
- hat tip to Edward Locke
Free to choose
-hat tip to Milton Friedman.