Religious Groups Benefit From Big Tax Breaks

Religious organizations and churches have received a growing number of tax breaks in recent years, prompting court challenges from people who believe the benefits unfairly favor religious groups over secular ones, reports The New York Times.

The tax breaks include allowing preachers to deduct housing expenses and opt out of Social Security and also an exemption for religious publications from state sales taxes. The exemption from sales taxes has been repeatedly struck down in court but persists in states like Florida.

Rick Warren, the head of a 22,000-member church in California and author of The Purpose Driven Life, has been a key advocate for the tax breaks. Mr. Warren has argued that such breaks are necessary for small-town preachers with paltry salaries.

Opponents of the tax breaks say they end up entangling government and religion. Secular nonprofit groups, critics point out, undertake many of the same humanitarian efforts as churches but still pay full taxes.

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