A weak attempt to justify church graft consists in the affirmation that
it is engaged in purely altruistic labors, and is not a profitmaking
institution. It is not engaged in any openly commercial undertaking.
Salvation is free, and all are welcome to its inestimable blessings. The
sophistry and lack of ingenuousness which make it possible to present
such an argument with a straight face can scarcely be characterized in
parliamentary language. It fairly reeks with self-evident fallacies.
First of all, if the church chooses to run its affairs on a non-profit
basis, that is strictly its own business, and does not concern the state
in any way. If it has no property, it escapes taxation as a matter of
course, like the individual who has nothing. But if it is able to own
property, it immediately incurs a specific obligation to the state,
which is totally independent of the use it makes of its property.
The man who retires from business, and lives on his income, is not
thenceforward exempted from all taxation, because he is no longer making
money. Nor does it serve as an excuse that he is making no profitable
investments, but is using up his bare capital, and is spending his time
and part of his means in philanthropic work. In spite of all this, he is
a member of society, and must meet his obligations as such, whenever
the tax collector comes around. The same is true of an organization. The
church takes up just as much space, receives as much social protection
and as much benefit from every civic improvement, whether it is making
money or not. The state does not forbid it to make money or to engage
in commercial enterprises; and its failure to do so is purely voluntary,
and is entirely irrelevant to the discharge of its pecuniary obligation
to organized society. Its privileges may be free; but what does that
mean to those who count them as worthless? It is a cheap evasion of
responsibility to offer in lieu of the specific payment of a debt, to
render the creditor some form of alleged service for which he has no
possible use, and which means nothing whatever to him. This remains
true, even if the unbeliever is under the spell of error, and ought to
appreciate the blessings of religious counsel. The dance may be one
of the most beautiful forms of art; but if Vernon Castle offered to
discharge a monetary obligation to a blind creditor by the execution of
the most wonderful Terpsichorean evolutions in his presence, there would
be no payment of the debt, even though the artistic performance might be
intrinsically worth far more than the sum owed, and would be readily so
appraised by all who had their eyes. No matter how valuable religious
exercises may be in themselves, nor how much satisfaction they may give
those who believe in them, the civil rights of the unbeliever remain on
a par with those of the believer; and it remains true that the offer
by the church of un-desired services can in no way constitute an
obligation. Let the church be supported by those who accept its offer,
and who desire to profit by its privileges, such as they are. This
remains no affair of other persons, or of the state. The benefits of
religion are subjective and strictly personal; and the state is in no
way qualified to pass on their value. To say that non-churchmen should
help pay the expenses of the church because they can become churchmen
if they wish to do so, is to say that a debt can be contracted without a
consideration.
* Not that the church always regards the payment of its
private debt as "a matter of course." The Rev. Dr.
Huntington of Grace Episcopal Church, New York city, and
William R. Stewart, one of the church wardens, in 1908 asked
an architect, J. Stewart Barney by name, to prepare plans
for extensive and expensive alterations in the church
building. The architect did the work in good faith and to
the full satisfaction of the church, but was deliberately
cheated out of his pay on the pretext that, though the
church wanted the work done, knew and approved of its being
done, received and was fully pleased with the benefits of
it, yet it had not technically authorized its pastor and
warden to give the order! Grace church is one of the
wealthiest religious bodies in New York. Such is Christian
honor and morality, the exalted character of which is
supposed to lay the community under a burden of gratitude
toward the church!