I believe its just a matter of time until churches will lose their 501c3 tax exempt statuses for one or more reasons. Once donations to churches are no longer tax deductible I foresee the big church building owned by the org going away and "churches" just gathering in public spaces or people's homes. It makes the most sense from all sides.
Why are church donations paying for a building that often remains mostly empty most of the time (I know, not all and not always as some churches try to keep their doors open and share the building with others) to heat it, upkeep it, take away land/property taxes from the local government/community? Those saved upkeep expenses could go directly into helping the poor and those in need.
Scrap ten buildings and get one, keep it open 24/7 and make it a shelter and soup kitchen. (But too many church goers/members treat "their church" like a country club or Malibu beach side home owners... "I don't want to mix let alone see those 'dirty poor rascals'".)
> Why are church donations paying for a building that often remains mostly empty most of the time...
Do you have any numbers for that? All the churches I know have activities and meetings all through the week, though not necessarily in the main sanctuary.
As for tax exemption, churches routinely do other charitable work, including things that would be called social work in other circumstances. In general, doing work the government would otherwise be responsible for qualifies a group for tax exempt status, even if with a different classification.
I suspect that if the religious tax exemption were revoked, the structure of giving would change, but churches themselves would stay more or less the way they are. After all, they predate the United States, its tax code, or the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.
I would imagine the majority of people tithing do not exceed their standard deduction and therefore don't include their donations on their tax return anyway.
I would imagine that the majority of financial support though comes from a minority, which probably make enough to exceed their standard deduction even without tithing (especially for the "country club" type churches).
$12400 is not difficult hit exceed for a married couple with state and local income or sales taxes, property taxes, mortgage interest, student loan interest?, medical and dental expenses, and charitable contributions.
Also, if churches have to pay property taxes I think many will ditch the building.
Why are church donations paying for a building that often remains mostly empty most of the time (I know, not all and not always as some churches try to keep their doors open and share the building with others) to heat it, upkeep it, take away land/property taxes from the local government/community? Those saved upkeep expenses could go directly into helping the poor and those in need.
Scrap ten buildings and get one, keep it open 24/7 and make it a shelter and soup kitchen. (But too many church goers/members treat "their church" like a country club or Malibu beach side home owners... "I don't want to mix let alone see those 'dirty poor rascals'".)