What if?

In the wake of Obergefell, many orthodox Christians are rightly asking what would happen if churches and church schools/pregnancy centers/adoption agencies lost their tax-exempt status and deductions were no longer allowed for contributions to Christian institutions.

Would these churches and schools survive?

Jean and I are in the land Down Under (Australia) for three weeks.  Here churches and church schools do not benefit from tax-deductible contributions.  With a few exceptions, they are on their own financially.

Yet there is much about churches and church institutions that remains strong. Evangelical churches are vibrant and growing.  Evangelical seminaries, such as Moore College in Sydney and Ridley College in Melbourne, are strong.  Hundreds of students matriculate at them.  Faculty are orthodox.  They offer Masters and PhD degrees in theology and scripture and church history.  Students are excited and optimistic about the future of the church and its institutions.

All this without tax deductions to motivate giving.

Now I think that if our country cancels Americans’ right to deduct their charitable giving, it is cutting its nose to spite its face.  It has been demonstrated repeatedly that tax deductions help a vast array of religious and other humanitarian works that do at least as much to help the poor as government already does.  If these charities close–and some will if their tax-exempt status is withdrawn–taxes will have to rise to make up the difference.

But if this does happen, God’s church will survive.  As its Head predicted, even the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

And in the land Down Under, where there is no appreciable tax-deduction for religious contributions, Christians still numbered 61% in the 2011 census, with 25% Catholic and 17% Anglican.  As in America, progressive churches are shrinking and orthodox churches are growing.