On CNN the other night, the moderator in front of a large audience asked Beto if he would take away the tax-exempt status of churches and private universities that didn’t support gay marriage.
“Yes,” the Democratic presidential candidate said, without hesitating, as the audience erupted in applause.
That’s where the First Amendment stands today, that’s where the progressive contempt for Christianity leaves us.
If your church teaches something the progressives disagree with, they will use the power of government to punish you. If you believe something that deviates from their orthodoxy, you will not be tolerated.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” is what the Constitution says. Fall in line with us, or we will crush you, the progressives say.
That’s what Beto’s answer means.
Tax-exempt status props up America’s religious and non-profit world. The century-old belief has been that the activities of these organizations are good for society, and therefore should be supported by society through exemption from property and corporate taxes.
To withdraw that tax exemption as a punishment for a belief is to violate the “free exercise” portion of our constitutional freedom of religion. It is to make the government the monitor and approver of religious belief, which would violate the “establishment” clause by making the progressive support for gay marriage the only government-accepted social or religious belief.
Anybody who got through eighth-grade social studies should know that that is wrong. Anybody running for president should know that that is wrong.
And yet the progressive movement is calling for just that. Freedom of religion is being made subservient to progressive dictate. Your right to believe is less important than the other guy’s right not to be offended. What the Bible teaches is less important than what the Democrats demand.
Instead of having a tolerant, diverse society in which some people believe in gay marriage and some people don’t – under a legal system that sees gay marriage as a constitutional right – the Democrats insist on a world in which even divergent belief is outlawed. If you dare to have a religious faith that deviates from progressive orthodoxy, your religion will be punished.
And what will that mean?
For most churches and private, religious colleges, it will mean bankruptcy.
When church property is taxed, when tithing and donations are taxed as corporate income, the operating margin will be gone and churches will be insolvent. Not just the churches on the corner, but also the nationwide and worldwide churches which fail to kneel before the rainbow flag. When the Democrats take away tax exemption from those churches which teach contrary to progressive orthodoxy, they will move against the central organizations of churches like the Methodists, Catholics and Mormons.
All of that is inherent in Beto’s one-word answer for his party.
And what’s true for churches would be true for the private universities associated with them.
Like Notre Dame, and Brigham Young, and Liberty, and Southern Methodist. If their campuses are to be taxed, and their donations become taxable income, their future is cast in doubt. Smaller religious schools, like Roberts Wesleyan and Houghton, would be immediately imperiled.
And that’s just over gay marriage. What about other religious beliefs offensive to progressives?
Like the ordination of women, or the encouragement of child bearing.
And what about the Christian teaching that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way by which man can be saved. Will that exclusivity of salvation be seen as bigotry, as a discrimination or a hate speech against those who believe otherwise or don’t believe at all?
If one article of religious faith can be sanctioned by the government, then all articles of religious faith can be sanctioned by the government, and the government is the master of religion.
Which is how it has always been in dictatorships.
And which is how the progressives want it to be in America.
Whether you see the progressive assault as a war on Christianity in particular, or a war on religion in general, it is clear that the teachings of God are to be subject to the teachings of men, and freedom of conscience does not extend so far as to allow disagreement with the Betos of the world.
Because this isn’t about gay marriage, it is about religious freedom.
Specifically, it is an attack on religious freedom. A purposeful, calculated attack on religious freedom.