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The Catholic Charities case stands a strong chance of reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The decision proposes a set of truly perverse incentives: if a church-sponsored organization, out of profound commitment to the charitable dictates of its faith, chooses to succor all the needy, rather than merely needy congregants, and if, to further the achievement of its charitable mission, it hires those best able to do the job and gives them a prescription drug benefits, rather than hiring only the most qualified among congregants and/or having no prescription drug benefit, than it is to be punished. Although the U.S. Supreme Court's majority on these issues is hard to predict, it seems probable to me that there will be five votes to reverse and put in place some more logical outcome consistent with the First Amendment.

There isn't one vote on the U.S. Supreme Court for forcing the ordination of women. However, there are probably 3 or 4 votes for stripping a "discriminatory" church of its tax-exempt status. Cutting into the donation plate would be the least serious effect of this -- the main loss would be of the property tax exemption. The big churches and cathedrals in city centers would have millions of property taxes every year, and your typical prosperous suburb could hit the local parish with $250,000 or $300,000 a year, just based upon the acreage confused.

The big churches and cathedrals in city centers would have millions of property taxes every year, and your typical prosperous suburb could hit the local parish with $250,000 or $300,000 a year, just based upon the acreage confused.

It'd be worth every penny to me if my pastor, and all the pastors across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania could preach from the pulpit that it is a mortal sin to vote for the baby killers Kerry and Specter.

(I am about to go over my one hour time limit and must now log off entirely for the day.)

However, there are probably 3 or 4 votes for stripping a "discriminatory" church of its tax-exempt status.

Using the tax-exempt status as a stick-and-a-carrot method to force the Church into submission to the state is an ugly sign of the coming end of religious freedom in the US. It's a method fitting Soviet Russia of the 1920's.

Let us pray for the conversion of communist Russia (in whatever country it happens to be these days).