Neither church nor synagogue is supposed to operate as a business, and what of megachurches with built-in McDonald's and the like? Yashua knocked down stands changing money and selling animals for sacrifice when he found them at temple. In fact, it's documented that he does this twice. Christianity is supposed to be an emulation of Yashua's life, so the existence of business churches should be a sign that in contemporary Christianity, there's something lacking.

It's a treat to find a Christian who keeps the Shabbat on the correct day, and keeps the Levitical food laws.

"If these megachurches are making money from shopping malls, movie theatres, and sporting events, and not having to pay taxes, then the separation of church and state has gone too far."

Absolutely true, except that under US IRS regulations, any income derived from non-religious purposes (including shopping malls, movie theaters, and sporting events) is taxable, and the law is pretty clear on that.  The only real problem is that in some cases, it's a little hard to separate out religious sourced income from non-religious sourced income.  It might be hard for the IRS auditors to figure out the church leased some room to a public group to hold a secular meeting (a taxable event), but it's not really hard for them to find the revenue from the lease payments for the strip shopping mall built on their land down the street.  The IRS has started looking, and they are finding it.  Obviously, the churches aren't happy, but if they don't pay those taxes, they can (and in some recent cases, they have) lost their tax exempt status.

We need to be fearful of over-generalization, 'cause honestly it can spread like the black plague.

If some of the Christian Churches are doing what it stated above, then they need to be dealt with properly.  It is plainly wrong!

As far as where you spend your money, well if I knew a worship place is misspending my mullah, then yeah I would not even donate my mullah or buy anything.  And if I strictly lived by the rule of knowing where my $ is going, then I have to investigate every store before shopping there and not places just Churches, as in my eyes this can create discrimination and misrepresentation.

I tell you this, I know of many other worship places that do the same.  And I wish, this article next time the article compares worship places and not a Church vs. Sweatshop (as there are many differences between those two).

Regards,

PLU