The Washington Post’s Paul Waldman is laughing out loud at those of us concerned (for very good reason) about the cause of religious liberty, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same sex marriage in all 50 states. In his Monday column, Waldman quotes a Seinfeld character, mocks the War on Christmas, gleefully notes that fewer people are identifying as Christians, and snickers and chortles and has himself a grand old time.
There is, however, one fact Waldman conspicuously avoids.
Nowhere in his 1300 word snark-fest does Waldman find the room for the words “tax” or “exempt.”
Within days of the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision, influential voices from The New York Times (by way of Time magazine) and Fusion (which is owned by Disney-ABC and Univision) called for ending the tax exemptions (that keep the non-profit Church alive) for any Church that refuses to perform same-sex marriages.
Revoking a Church’s tax exempt status will destroy that Church. Period. These people know this, and therefore know that what they are calling for is for the Church to be forced between choosing survival or violating their conscience by sacrementalizing sin on their own hallowed grounds.
How real is this threat?
Other than real enough that Waldman didn’t want to go there (knowing it would undermine the central thesis of his column), just last week a top spokesperson for the Hillary Clinton campaign dodged a question about protecting the tax status of Churches that decline to perform gay wedding ceremonies.
How real is this threat?
When I pressed Waldman on the matter via Twitter, he dodged the issue:
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@NolteNC If there’s an influential person who thinks a priest should be forced to marry gay couples against his will, I’ll disagree w/ them.
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) July 7, 2015
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@NolteNC If all churches get tax exemptions, they can have whatever standards for their rituals that they want. For tax purposes anyway.
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) July 7, 2015
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While the Left is laughing at us, they are moving against us.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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