Whatever you might think of Markus Bishop’s spiritual abilities, his earthly abilities have always seemed clear.
The guy can collect money.
Bishop was once the pastor of Faith Christian Family Church. His church purchased a 10,000 square-foot, five-bedroom, six-bath home in an exclusive neighborhood – nowhere near the church. The home was so opulent that it came under scrutiny from the local property appraiser who said it should not count as a tax-exempt parsonage. Years of court battles followed but Bishop won every time and the case was eventually dropped.
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However, Faith Christian fell on hard times and closed its doors. Bishop has since opened a new church, The Life Center, but the activities inside the center have led local officials like Sheriff Frank McKeithen to proclaim that Bishop is not running a church but “trying to get around the laws, and they’re using the church to get there.”
The Center has, since Feb. 28, run a seven-days-a-week party schedule as Amnesia: The Tabernacle. A video promoting activities there did not describe events that most people would consider spiritual.
The Tabernacle’s website boasts a pajama and lingerie parties, “Anything But Clothes” paint party and “Wet n Wild,” a water-themed event where “white water meets Tabernacle PCB with a little twerkin’.” Patrons are charged $20 at the door, which is called a donation.
“I’ve been in a lot of nightclubs and I’ve been in a lot of churches,” Panama City Beach Police Chief Drew Whitman told The News Herald’s Zack McDonald. “That isn’t a church.”
Dan Sowell, Bay County’s property appraiser, said he plans to officially notify The Life Center that it no longer has tax exempt status later this year. Sowell’s authority on the matter comes from Florida State Statute 196.196, which states that “property claimed as exempt for literary, scientific, religious, or charitable purposes which is used for profit making purposes shall be subject to ad valorem taxation.”
In other words, you probably can’t run a nightclub in a “church” seven nights a week during Spring Break. And, to the best of our knowledge, while they do ask for donations most churches, mosques and synagogues don’t have a cover charge.
The deeper question here is whether or not churches or “churches” should be exempt from paying taxes. It’s certainly true that The Life Center is far from the only organization that calls itself a church but then allegedly engages in activities designed to make the leadership wealthy at the expense of the followers. And, unfortunately, many people and organizations have taken advantage of the tax exempt status over the years.
However, bad actors don’t negate the necessity of treating churches differently from businesses.
Churches have been tax exempt since the founding of this country, a tradition that is believed to stretch back to the Roman Empire and Emperor Constantine’s conversion.
In 1970 the U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8-1 decision, upheld the status.
“The legislative purpose of a property tax exemption is neither the advancement nor the inhibition of religion; it is neither sponsorship nor hostility,” wrote Chief Justice Warren Burger. “New York, in common with the other States, has determined that certain entities that exist in a harmonious relationship to the community at large, and that foster its 'moral or mental improvement,' should not be inhibited in their activities by property taxation or the hazard of loss of those properties for nonpayment of taxes.”
Or as a local pastor put it to The News Herald’s Editorial Board, taxation is a form of control and the government should not seek to control churches just as churches should not seek to control the government.
Yes, agents from both sides often try to intervene in the workings of the other but just because that does happen does not mean it should. It is also ironic that those who want to see the government tax churches are also usually the loudest voices calling for a strict separation of church and state.
It seems clear that government officials had very good reasons for canceling The Life Center’s tax exemption status. We suspect that our court system will ultimately be called on to decide whether or not the center qualifies as a church.
Regardless, our society works best when spiritual matters are dealt with inside a house of worship and political matters are dealt with inside the legislative, judicial and executive branches.