"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof." It is as simple as that.
By providing tax free status to churches, synagogues, mosques, etc... America is indeed respecting the establishment of religion.
Psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, all preach to patients in some form. Yet these individuals have to pay taxes on property and services if they open up a small business. So too should every church.
I have no problem with tax exempt status for charitable activities such as feeding the poor, building homes for the homeless, etc... If money is earmarked in a church for those purposes, then it should be considered a tax writeoff.
But what is happening is that many people are using our anti-first Amendment tax laws to attain luxurious lives under the guise of religion. Cardinals in every major city get food, housing, transportation, etc... partly from revenue created by our discriminatory tax laws. If people are going to put a hundred dollars in the bucket which the cardinal uses to eat,then that money should be counted as profit and then taxed just like the money you would give to a plumber, carpenter, or dentist.
The same rules should apply to everyone. If an atheist, agnostic, or non religious person wants to establish a meeting center to preach, then that property should be taxed. Money that goes into the jar NOT used for charity should be taxed.
Yes, the same bigots in here who don't like the idea of religious people being treated the SAME as everyone else will automatically denounce this as "anti religion," "religion bashing," etc... Shame on them.