KRT Wire | 05/17/2004 | Texas official says Unitarian church not a tax-exempt religion

"What constitutes religion? When and how should government make that determination? Questions that for years have vexed the world's great philosophers have now become the province of the state comptroller's office.
Questions about the issue were referred to Jesse Ancira, the comptroller's top lawyer, who said Strayhorn has applied a consistent standard - and then stuck to it. For any organization to qualify as a religion, members must have 'simply a belief in God, or gods, or a higher power,' he said.
'We have got to apply a test, and use some objective standards,' Ancira said. 'We're not using the test to deny the exemptions for a particular group because we like them or don't like them.'
Since Strayhorn took over in January 1999, the comptroller's office has denied religious tax-exempt status to 17 groups and granted them to more than 1,000, according to records obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Although there are exceptions, the lion's share of approvals have gone to groups that appear to have relatively traditional faiths, records show.
But of the denials, at least a fourth include less traditional groups. In addition to the Denison Unitarian church, the rejected groups include a Carrollton, Texas, group of atheists and agnostics, a New Age group in Bastrop, Texas, and the Whispering Star Clan/Temple of Ancient Wisdom, an organization of witches in Copperas Cove, Texas."

As churches find themselves in more and more difficult economic times, happenings like this make life even more difficult. To suddenly have a body of the government decide that your church is not a "real church" can come as a real shock to a community.

How many people live in a rural community that cannot afford to support 2 or more churches, so they have combined faiths? Or they have simply said, "We don't care what religion you believe in, just come be part of our community for the sake of the community."