Religious freedom activism is driven partly by fear of losing tax subsidies

Evidence

Just as important as the pursuit of private money to Christian nationalism is the effort to secure public sources of funding. The movement has learned to siphon public money through subsidies, tax deductions, grants, and other schemes. This flow of funds has in turn shaped the ambitions and tactics of the movement. The calls for “religious freedom” that characterize much of its activism today, though undoubtedly bound up in a sincerely held belief that conservative Christians should be permitted to discriminate against LGBT people and members of religious minority groups, are as loud and passionate as they are because they are grounded in the fear among movement leaders that their discriminatory inclinations might cost them their lucrative tax deductions and subsidies. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 43

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: the tax-deduction tail wagging the religious-freedom movement dog — how financial self-interest, not just belief, fuels religious liberty claims.
• XREF: connects to: Tax exemption functions as a hidden public subsidy for churches — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 111; The Religious Right began as reaction to IRS desegregation of Christian schools. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 312

Broader Connections

• Tax exemption functions as a hidden public subsidy for churches #expands (0.90) — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 111
• The Religious Right began as reaction to IRS desegregation of Christian schools. #corroborates (0.80) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 312