Congress may soon have a debate about tax exemptions. Senator Mike Lee has introduced the First Amendment Defense Act. This would protect religious institutions from losing their tax-exempt status if they don’t support same sex marriage. On the other side is Mark Oppenheimer who recently wrote that, “Now’s the Time To End Tax Exemptions for Religious Institutions.”

Bob Jones University lost its tax-exempt status in the 1980s because the school policies at that time violated “fundamental national public policy.” It doesn’t take much imagination to see how the recent Supreme Court decision on same sex marriage could be used against churches.

This may surprise you, but I welcome the debate. After all, we are going to have to have it anyway now that Senator Lee’s bill has been introduced. I think a debate about tax exemptions for churches and other non-profit organizations would be instructive for a number of reasons.

First, it could be a teaching moment for the nation. Those who pay attention to the debate would probably be surprised (even shocked) at the amount of good that the churches and Christian organizations do every single day. As I mentioned in a previous commentary, the president doesn’t seem to know (or at least acknowledge) the effective ministry Christian organizations have with the poor. Let’s let the world know what dedicated Christians are doing in the name of Jesus.

Second, a debate about the tax-exempt status of churches would also reveal how many other non-profit organizations take advantage of the tax law. Mark Oppenheimer reminds us how: “Conservative are footing the bill for taxes that Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit, doesn’t pay—while liberals are making up revenue lost from the National Rifle Association.” He reminds us of universities with billions of dollars of endowment that enjoy tax-exempt status. And he even asks why the IRS caved and awarded the Church of Scientology tax-exempt status when it is secretive and charges for its courses.

It would be interesting to hear these and hundreds of other organizations try to explain why they deserve tax exemption.