A Stitch in Haste

When it's against the only institutions lower on the moral ladder than taxing authorities, sure: (WSJ -$)

Local government officials say they are levying taxes because churches are running businesses that don't have a charitable mission. At a time of greater federal scrutiny of religious finance, these efforts are targeting fast-growing Protestant megachurches and television evangelists, as well as established Catholic and Jewish congregations.
...
The changing nature of churches "forces both courts and agencies and tax commissioners to decide what's a religious or charitable use," says John Witte Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University in Atlanta.

That bothers some religious scholars. "When you have a taxing authority trying to decide what's your ministry and what's not, I see a problem here," says James E. Vaughn, a law professor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

The professor sees a problem — um, why? There is no First Amendment right not to have your church taxed.* It's a mere policy overlay wrapped up in the general heuristic that non-profit activities should be tax-exempt.

The government only comes close to the line when the churches come close to the line first.

Don't turn your pews into pizzerias, and don't confuse your pulpits with your politics, and you'll have little difficulty with the IRS.

(Via Religion Clause.)

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Meanwhile, I wonder whether the professor "sees a problem" with a local government using eminent domain to give land to a religious group to build a private school.**

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*Bob Jones University v. U.S., 461 U.S. 574 (1983).

**In Re 1839 North Eighth Street, No. 36 EAP 2006 (Supr. Ct. Penn., December 27, 2007) (PDF - 11 pages).