A cornerstone of the right has been to remove social programs from the government and have the private sector handle them – most notably the churches. Having churches run programs that should be a part of any government is a very serious threat to our form of government. It would be hard to have a separation of church and state when the church can further deepen their claws into the fabric of our government.

Today we get a perfect example of why this is a threat:

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn’t change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

The Catholic church can now use these social programs as a tool to hold governments hostage. This is very scary. Imagine if Bush had his way and all federal social programs were taken over by outside organizations like the Catholic Church. Our Congress would hear things like “ban abortion or we are gone” or “federally ban gay marriage or we are gone”. This kind of behavior could actually be classified as a form of terrorism.

A simple solution to problems like these is removing the tax free provision given to the church. If the church feels it can optionally give back to communities based upon the legislation in that area, then there is no reason for them to remain a tax free haven. Instead it’s time for the IRS to start collecting from them. The church has been crossing the line of separation more and more recently and it’s time for them to really contribute back to our nation. The tax money collected from churches could be earmarked solely for things like social programs and health care.