Taxing the Church

"""Edward Zelinsky's Taxing the Church is a comprehensive, informative, and balanced contribution about a perennial church-state issue, one that waxes and wanes in controversy. While written primarily for an audience of law and policy makers, it is sufficiently approachable for a lay audience. Indeed, clergy and scholars of religion-in-society may find it a useful resource, even if they skip some of the legal discussions."" --Steven Green, Reading Religion ""Zelinsky raises questions about existing theories that are so wedded to the 'rhetoric' of separation that they cannot account for the inevitable entanglements of church and state in the area of tax law. The result is a challenge to anyone who sees simple bright lines in church-state relationsâTaxing the Church demonstrates that we can talk about the church-state relationship in ways that are both principled and serious about the need for trade-offs in a messy area of law."" --Kevin R. den Dulk, Journal of Church and State ""Comprehensive in its scope, yet nuanced in its analysis, Taxing the Church deftly explores the tensions between church and state in the tax context and offers a pragmatic path towards an appropriate resolution of these tensions by focusing on the question of church/state 'enforcement entanglement.' In an era of political and social polarization, in which church/state conflicts often generate more heat than light, Zelinsky has provided us with precisely what the debate needs: a commendably balanced, characteristically thoughtful, and highly original elucidation of the problem of taxing religious institutions."" Walter Hellerstein, Distinguished Research Professor, Francis Shackelford Professor of Taxation, University of Georgia School of Law ""At the heart of the book is a valuable insight: once the state starts to tax, entanglement between the government and the religious organizations is inevitable. Therefore, the calls to remove tax exemption on the theory that it will result in a fairer and more neutral system leads to the government delving into the inner workings of religious organizations. For many, that may be a plus, but for many others, that may be a bridge too far. That is the debate we need, and it is teed up beautifully in Taxing the Church."" - Marci A. Hamilton, Fox Family Pavilion Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Program for Research on Religion, University of Pennsylvania6R ""With great erudition and careful attention to the many complexities of our system of taxation and tax exemption for religious institutions, Professor Zelinsky makes a contextually sensitive case for taxation in certain contexts and not others. His discussion of 'enforcement entanglement' and 'borderline entanglement' is particularly rich and illuminating."" - Marc O. DeGirolami, Professor of Law, and Associate Director, Center for Law and Religion, St. John's University School of Law ""Advocates on both sides of the religious exemption divide would be well served by reading this book and pondering its arguments."" - Peter J. Reilly, Forbes"