If all religious bodies are exempt from taxation, no member of any
one of them can dispute the fact that for every dollar which the state
indirectly contributes to the cause of truth, it gives from five to a
thousand times as much to error. If all but a mere handful of the people
accepted some one creed as divinely inspired, while exemption from
taxation would still be an unjustifiable infringement on the rights of
the minority, there would at least be some plausibility in the attempt
to justify it on the ground that the balance of probability might fairly
be claimed for the views of the overwhelming majority. Unsound as
such an argument would be, it would possess an overwhelming weight in
comparison with the present position of the tax exemptionists, who
would not merely leave the enemy to sow tares amid the wheat, but would
themselves fairly choke the good seed with a crushing preponderance
of foul weeds. If the democratic principle of separation of church and
state forbids the manipulation of public funds, and by an obvious parity
of reasoning the taxing power of the state, for the promotion of any
given sect which may possess the whole truth, the general subsidizing
of all sects, so far from being less obnoxious to objection from the
standpoint of honest administration, is even more so, since it ensures
the survival of a mass of falsehood, incapable of being sustained by its
own unaided efforts. It fosters the less worthy among the sects, which
could not win their way by merit; and it insidiously corrupts the
more worthy, by inviting them to thrive by parasitism, rather than by
appealing to the force which resides in truth and in the consistent
devotion to high ideals.