Here's commentary from GaraLog:
The comptroller's office has not always barred "creedless" religions from tax exemption, said Douglas Laycock, a University of Texas law professor who specializes in religious liberty issues.
That standard first came up in 1997, when then-Comptroller Sharp ruled against the Ethical Culture Fellowship of Austin. In making that decision, Sharp overturned the recommendation of his staff.
The Ethical Culture Fellowship sued, claiming that Sharp overstepped his authority. Allied with the group in the ongoing lawsuit are pastors from a broad range of faiths, including Baptists, Lutherans and Mennonites.
Both the lower court and the Texas Supreme Court have ruled against the state's decision. In one opinion, an appeals court said the comptroller's test "fails to include the whole range of belief systems that may, in our diverse and pluralistic society, merit the First Amendment protection."
Strayhorn vows to continue the legal fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. "Otherwise, any wannabe cult who dresses up and parades down Sixth Street on Halloween will be applying for an exemption," she said in a April 23 news release.
The problem with rejecting the Unitarians is that they are part of a tradition that includes John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
The Associated Baptist Press defended the church:
The state office's initial willingness to set up belief in a supreme being or beings as the criterion for tax exemption troubled some religious-liberty advocates.
"Religious liberty is always threatened when state officials attempt to define religion -- all the more when they do so narrowly. They should always err on the side of inclusion in close cases," said Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in Washington, D.C.
The Supreme Court has called attempts to define religion "a dangerous and difficult task," and the court has ruled religion does not have to be reasonable or logical -- much less orthodox -- to be protected by the First Amendment, Walker noted.
"Any purported standard that requires a formal creed or belief in God leaves a lot of faith traditions out," Walker said.
...
The Unitarian Universalist Association developed historically from two related strands of liberal Christianity -- Unitarians, who believed in the unity of God rather than the Trinity, and Universalists, who believed in universal salvation of all people. Modern Unitarian Universalists look to a variety of world religions and secular sources for inspiration.
The Red River Unitarian Universalists' website notes: "Unitarian Universalism is a free and open faith which does not demand that its members subscribe to any particular religious creed or doctrine. Instead, it emphasizes the right and responsibility of each individual to search for his or her own religious truth and meaning."
...
Strickland [Phil Strickland, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission] expressed sympathy for the comptroller's desire to deal with "illegitimate groups that are not really interested in religion but are only interested in a tax exemption." But he suggested that the state judge the legitimacy of claims for tax exemption based on whether groups have established places of worship and a history of religious practices -- not on the basis of their theology.
"When the state uses a theological criteria, then it clearly is usurping its power by trying to define good religions and bad religions. That is not the role of government," he said.
Walker of the BJC also agreed that "obvious shams and clear cases of fraud" rightly can be denied tax exemption. "But I don't see that here," he added. "If the Unitarian Universalists -- a denomination of long standing -- don't qualify, then we all are in jeopardy."
Here's more commentary from The Decembrist.
