<p>Since you won’t answer the question, I’ll answer it for you: The answer is “no.” Because if you have a Constitutional right to practice your religion, the courts will not allow states to deny you that right indirectly by means of a punitive tax.</p>
<p>In the case of parochial schools, it’s very clear that the courts recognize a constitutional right to send one’s children to parochial school. Thus, a punitive tax aimed at shutting down parochial schools would be struck down so fast your head would spin around.</p>
<p>See also LDS v. Amos, 43 U.S. 327 (1987). The Mormon church was allowed to fire a janitor who worked in a gymnasium for failing to follow certain church rules that had nothing to do with his job. Any other employer would be breaking the law if it fired an employee for his non-work-related religious choices. But churches have special freedom to discriminate.</p>
<p>Also note that Pierce v. Society of Sisters is not only good law, but the principle has been expanded to allow a religious community to keep their teenagers out of school altogether, in defiance of state law. Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972) (unanimously holding that Amish parents may stop their children’s education after 8th grade despite state law requiring attendance until age 16).</p>
<p>“The voters don’t have the final say. The courts do”</p>
<p>And which courts have stated that teaching kids religious doctrine is a form of harassment, or have even hinted that they might state such a proposition in the future?</p>
<p>You haven’t been reading up on the law if you think that courts are moving in the direction of regulating religion. On the contrary, just last week, the third most powerful court in the country ruled unanimously in favor of a pastor on the grounds that the court could not meddle in church affairs. Penley v. Westbrook, ___ Tex. ___ (2007). During a private counseling session, a congregant admitted to the pastor, who was a state-licensed marriage counselor, that she had committed adultery, and he then announced the details of her affair from the pulpit and instructed the congregation to shun her. If a non-pastoral counselor did the same, he would be liable to the tune of thousands of dollars or more and lose his license to boot…but once again, the law is clear that religious bodies have special freedom to conduct business as they see fit, even if they violate secular laws along the way. The only exception, so far, has been for certain criminal statutes. See, e.g., Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990) (sacramental use of peyote, an illegal drug, not protected under the First Amendment).</p>
<p>And the Catholic church has been allowed to fire teachers whose “lifestyle” doesn’t conform to its laws. I recall an elementary school teacher who was fired for being pregnant out of wedlock. Was she supposed to have an abortion? Tricky dilemma there…</p>
<p>That one was really thorny, because she was pregnant when they hired her, and said she hadn’t had out of wedlock sex since being hired. So they were effectively firing her for not being a virgin on hire, something that would be unheard of for a male teacher.</p>
<p>If I were God, I would fix it so something happened to the father as well when a woman got “in trouble.” Some sort of matching aura so he could be guilty as well. That would solve a lot of the world’s problems, wouldn’t it?</p>
<p>Now back to your regularly scheduled discussion…</p>
<p>“If I were God, I would fix it so something happened to the father as well when a woman got ‘in trouble.’”</p>
<p>He did. Read Genesis :-)</p>
<pre><code> "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the
voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is
the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all
the days of thy life;
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and
thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou
return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."