God’s Tax Subsidies
At Slate, Matthew Yglesias questions why churches receive tax breaks. “If church donations were subject to income taxes and church land were subject to property taxes, this would presumably lead to smaller and less architecturally splendid churches located in less-pricey areas and perhaps with lower-paid clergy. But would fewer souls be saved? Would an angry God blight are crops?” he writes. Although churches might provide fewer social services, the trade-off has to be weighed against the benefit of economic growth.