Apologies if this sounds like a rant. We live in a state where cities and towns are having a difficult time financing public safety (police and fire departments); our public schools are among the worst in the country. Voters are refusing to approve local option sales tax increases while watching their towns self destruct.

In the meantime, churches are sitting on huge chunks of property while enriching their coffers and sucking vast amounts of potential tax dollars from the suffering communities. In enrages me every time I pass a "super church" and see a uniformed city policeman directing traffic while his cruiser is nearby with the engine running. I have actually challenged the police about this practice, but to no avail. Such is the hypocrisy of the separation of church and state.

In my mind, it is past time for religious institutions to pay their fair share of taxes to the communities where they are located. It is past time for the ministers and deacons to stop spreading their version of religious politics during their services. Churches violating the "Johnson" rule should be taxed.

I won't get into the phony " right," bible thumping, proselytizers who putrefy the landscape. After all, as I said, this is not a rant.