I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here by saying that when Mother Teresa was scraping people off the streets of Calcutta, she really didn’t give a sh!t about whether her work was “tax exempt” or not.
No you are not going out on a limb. But, charitable and humanitarian work done by religious organizations costs money. In spite of so much being done by volunteers, it still costs money to operate homeless accommodations, feeding programs, counseling service of various types. I think the point is still valid that religions losing tax exempt status will hurt them financially, regardless of the example set by Mother Teresa.