Mark Oppenheimer, PhD Biography
- Title:
- Opinion columnist at the Los Angeles Times
- Position:
- Con to the question "Should Churches (Including Mosques, Synagogues, etc.) Remain Tax-Exempt?"
- Reasoning:
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“The Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage makes it clearer than ever that the government shouldn’t be subsidizing religion and non-profits… It’s time to abolish, or greatly diminish, their tax-exempt statuses… [T]he religious exemption has forced the IRS to decide what’s a religion, and thus has entangled church and state in the worst way. Since the world’s great religion scholars can’t agree on what a religion is, it’s absurd to ask a bunch of accountants, no matter how well-meaning…
[T]he IRS famously caved and awarded the Church of Scientology tax-exempt status. Never mind that the Scientology is secretive, or that it charges for its courses; or that its leader, David Miscavige, lives like a pasha. Indeed, many clergy have mid-six-figure salaries — many university presidents, seven-figure salaries — and the IRS doesn’t trouble their tax-exempt status. And many churches and synagogues sit on exceedingly valuable tracts of land (walk up and down Fifth Avenue to see what I mean). The property taxes they aren’t paying have to be drawn from business owners and private citizens — in a real sense, you and I are subsidizing Mormon temples, Muslims mosques, Methodist churches.”
“Now’s the Time to End Tax Exemptions for Religious Institutions,” TIME magazine, June 28, 2015
- Involvement and Affiliations:
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- Opinion columnist, Los Angeles Times
- Columnist, “Beliefs,” New York Times, 2010-June 2016
- Host, Unorthodox podcast, Tablet magazine
- Lecturer in Religion and Literature, Yale Divinity School
- Contributor, New York Times Magazine, The Nation, The Forward, Tablet, Mother Jones
- Director, Yale Journalism Initiative
- Recipient, Koret Young Writer on Jewish Themes award
- Recipient, Hiett Prize in the Humanities
- Education:
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- PhD, Religion, Yale University, 2003
- BA, History, Yale College, 1996
- PhD, Religion, Yale University, 2003
- Other:
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- Has taught at Yale, Stanford, Wesleyan, Boston College, and New York University
- Twitter: @markopp1
- Quoted in:
- Pro & Con Quotes: Should Churches (Including Mosques, Synagogues, etc.) Remain Tax-Exempt?