The NY Times reports an example of how the church is given advantages over other organizations in defending itself in court.
Mary Rosati, a novice training to be a nun in Toledo, Ohio, says that after she received a diagnosis of breast cancer, her mother superior dismissed her. If Ms. Rosati had had a nonreligious job, she might have won a lawsuit against her diocese (which denies the charge). But a federal judge dismissed her suit under the Americans With Disabilities Act, declining to second-guess the church's "ecclesiastical decision."Here's an example where maybe we should start giving equal treatment for religious organizations.
In recent years, all kinds of religious organizations have become deeply engaged in political activity. These engagements, which might be considered lobbying in some ways, have yielded them billions in "income." Perhaps we should treat religious organizations like the sponsors of lobbyists. They pay taxes.
I'm on the board of my synagogue AND a member of an interfaith church, but I believe it's time to take the Christian far right seriously about one aspect of separation of church and state. These disloyal religious extremists have placed their churches and religious concerns far ahead of loyalty to the US, loyalty to the constitution or loyalty to democratic ideals. Let them get the unintended consequences of what they've asked for.
I see no reason why big operation like a megachurch, with as many profit centers as they have, should not be treated as a for profit business.
Give these people, so eager to change the constitution, to change the laws the founders clearly laid out, what they want. It's about time they got the other side of the equality treatment.
