All religions are businesses. So why any of their money making schemes are of any interest to atheists is beyond me.

I suspect certain ministries are awash in cash that flows below the radar of any regulatory authority and, certainly, out of sight of the IRS. I have known devoutly religious people who tithed "religiously" but whose kids went without the money they needed to participate in extracurricular activities and who know what else. There is no way that televangelists living in multi-million dollar mega mansions do not co-mingle their personal fortunes with the operating costs of their "churches." I'm sure there is plenty of imaginative bookkeeping that goes on. And the same goes for those socialite churches that exist in many affluent communities. I remember as a kid attending a Presbyterian church in the wealthy enclave of Montecito near Santa Barbara where the minister was especially proud of his extensive collection of antique automobiles and had somehow managed to engineer his continuous stay in a church that usually rotated ministers through various congregations every few years. If you take a sailboat offshore of Waikiki in Honolulu you can see a large catholic church dominating the skyline. What many people don't know is that church also owns a great deal of extremely valuable commercial property around it collecting rents that I assume are tax-free income as well. These outfits are not only operating what you call protection rackets but extortion rackets as well. My now-deceased partner was raised as a Roman catholic but his parents were excommunicated for not underwriting the coal required to heat the church in their local parish one winter. It is outrageous that these organizations are not subject to the taxes all other entities pay to fund the infrastructure of which they take full advantage and the military they so passionately embrace that protect their freedom to run amok through secular society. The argument of separation of church and state would hold water if the churches recognized it. But they use their tax free income to lobby for their versions of sharia law, even underwriting homophobic ballot measures and using their pulpits to sway their congregations to cast their votes as the church recommends. On the day every public building has been relieved of any reference to a deity and the church agrees to disentangle itself from its grip on secular society I would say give them their tax free status. But hand them a bill for taxes owed 200 years in arrears.