It all boils down to separation. If a church wants to intermingle it's assets into the marketplace then it should expect to be subject to marketplace norms. No one is forcing religious institutions or religious individuals to chase after capital, but when they do they are no different then non religious organizations or folks who likewise chase after capital. Same with politics, if a church wants to express it's desire to influence elections and policy through it's capital, it is subject as well to laws that govern political giving. If a religious institution wants to preach from the pulpit influences that convey their particular desire for how their parishioners vote then they lose their status of solely being a religious organization and the benefits that go with that. Faith in a supernatural being is sacred in our society but so are the laws we have established to not only protect the faiths from government but to protect government from the faiths. The delineation is clear, separate religion from commerce and politics and the rights we give religious institutions is rock solid, however deviate from that separation and then those rights cease to exist. Remember, faith is a belief system, not a universal fact of existence. Given the many religions the world over we should have no trouble at all understanding that faith is more to do with comfort and hope and less to do with fact and logic. Both faith and non belief can co-exist in our society and for many of us a permutation of some sort of this co-existence has been our reality. The question is clear here however about what we do as a functioning society and the laws we live by and the need to find solace in our far from understood existence.
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