[tahiti]

The 9th circuit court stated:

"If ... Rev. Warren is not entitled to any tax deduction at all, because such a deduction would violate the First Amendment (separation of church and state),"

The First Amendment states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

If the tax deduction violates the First Amendment "establishment" clause, then any tax at all on a religion is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment "free exercise thereof" clause.

I say bring it on. Then the churches would not be so "scared" of losing their tax deductions (prohibiting the free exercise thereof) if the pastor's of those churches lace their sermons with political speech, such as whom and who their congregation should vote for.

[kritikos]

But what happens to the tens of thousands of ministers who are working with small congregations too poor to pay a livable salary? The loss to the ministers and their congregations would be tremendous. This deduction has allowed churches to exist that would not otherwise exist.