Churches may have their tax exempt status challenged or revoked if they publicly oppose same-sex marriage or refuse to allow same-sex marriage ceremonies in their religious buildings open to the public.

Here are some examples:

In 2007, a church refused to allow a same-sex civil union ceremony in its worship facility because homosexual sex is contrary to the church’s core doctrines (see court document). The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights revoked the church’s property tax exemption with respect to that facility, even though New Jersey law expressly exempts from property tax “all buildings actually used in the work of associations and corporations organized exclusively for religious purposes, including religious worship…” (N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.6).

In 1999, then-San Francisco Supervisor Mark Leno sought to initiate legal action to revoke the Mormon Church’s tax-exempt status because the church had encouraged its members to support Proposition 22, the 2000 initiative that defined marriage as between a man and a woman in California. The church’s position was that preservation of traditional marriage is religious issue. Read the news story here.

According to constitutional law professor Douglas W. Kmiec, “judicial decisions approving same-sex marriage or even state laws barring discrimination can be used to pronounce any opposing moral or religious doctrine to be ‘contrary to public policy.’ So declared, it would be short work for a state attorney general's opinion to deny the tax-exempt status of charities and most orthodox Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious bodies. If enough state lawyers do this, expect the IRS to chime in” (Douglas W. Kmiec, “If gays marry, churches could suffer,” The Chicago Tribune (May 26, 2006)).

Vote Yes on Proposition 8 to protect churches from being taxed out of existence.