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Have you come to the mentality of this country that your property reverts to the government each year and you must buy it back?!

Yes, that is exactly correct. This country pays for your property's defense, communications, power, transportation, sanitation and emergency services. Thus, there is a tab that MUST be payed. For a church to insist on a 'tax-exempt' status, it must (IMHO) show that it is providing for the public a service (no pun intended). If the church does not provide a service to the community, there is no reason for the church to receive the civic services it shares in, in the tax-exempt state. If that is the case, (again, IMHO) it should be treated as private property, and subject to taxes as any privately owned property would.

If you disagree, and refuse to pay your property taxes, and you will soon find that the gov't will seize your property. So, again, yes indeedie ... the US Gov't 'owns' your property, and you buy it back every year when you pay your property taxes.

That's stating the obvious. However, I'd ask on what principle does this notion stand? Not, on the specific acts of congress or tax code or other lawyerly stuff. But on what moral ground does this "we own it and you buy it back each year" lie?