In Texas, it is standard for religious organizations to receive a variety of automatic tax exemptions. In 1996, the Ethical Society of Austin (ESA) applied for such a religious tax exemption and was initially approved - but then the Comptroller revoked their exemption on the grounds that the organization does not require members to worship a Supreme Being. They have been fighting this in court ever since - and now the Texas Supreme Court has ruled in their favor (just like every other court, it seems).

The Dallas Morning News reports:

The Texas Supreme Court refused to consider state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn's appeal to bar the Ethical Society of Austin from qualifying for property and sales tax exemptions for religious groups. But rather than accept defeat from the state's highest civil court, Strayhorn vowed to press on to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Groups like the Ethical Society of Austin are not religiously based," she said. "This fight is about more than one organization trying to avoid paying their fair share. It's about protecting the groups in Texas who truly deserve to be tax exempt," she said. ... Strayhorn said granting the ethical group religious status will prompt "any wannabe cult who dresses up and parades down Sixth Street on Halloween" to apply.

The real purpose of Strayhorn's fight seems to be evident from her last comment: it's not simply that the Ethical Society isn't theistic, because at least some of those "cults" would be theistic as well. The real problem would appear to be that the Ethical Society isn't a traditional religious group in the Judeo-Christian sense. This means that they aren't "really" religious and, hence, don't deserve the same tax exemptions that religions get.

This is one of the pieces of evidence which shows that giving religious groups special tax exemptions at all is dangerous and can be misused in order to favor certain religious beliefs over others. Cases like this provide people with a good reason to think that churches and other religious organizations should have to get the same sort of charitable tax exemption that other groups have to get - an exemption that would force them to meet stricter standards, but which would make it easier to treat everyone the same.

Read More:

• Secularism 101
• Separation of Church and State 101