Imagine if the christian church charged admission for services.
Imagine if a christian church ran a vast real estate and financial empire, built palaces with 15,000€ bathtubs for Bishops of Bling, and systemically obstructed justice in cases of sexual abuse of minors.
Oh, yeah . . . no need to imagine. They should be hit with RICO charges.
I can't see any difference between political action committees and churches. The NRA spends money supporting a pro-gun political platform. Churches spend money promoting their own religious beliefs in political platforms.
Like it or not, those Tea Party folks could probably register themselves as a religion. All those Ayn Rand Objectivism rants, like, "Altruism is evil" sounds like religious beliefs to me.
I think all folks should be free to practice whatever religion they choose, or not choose. However, when their religion is organized into something that walks, talks and acts like a business . . . they have no right to escape the taxman than any other folks.