go here for the background:
French court tries Church of Scientology - Yahoo! News
Long story short, France is saying Scientology is full of crap and is defrauding its members, and is trying to get it taken off of the "real religion" table.
OK, good for France. But let's shift focus to the USA. Separation of Church and State. How far should it go? Could something like this happen here? Should it?
There's all sorts of made up religions in this country. Some admit they're made up (Church of the Sub Genius which worships the Almighty Bob, the Pastafarians, etc) and some deny it despite their founder having detailed his idea to invent a religion and get rich a few years before he actually did it (Scientology.)
Where this gets interesting, of course, is that religious organizations are exempt from certain taxes. Should Scientology enjoy the same benefits as the Catholics do? What about worshipers of the Flying Spaghetti monster? Should they, too, be exempt from many taxes? Should they be exempt from fraud investigations if, as Scientology does, they claim they can cure your unhappiness if only you give them enough money?
I think you can tell from the tone of my questions what side of this particular fence I fall on. What's your opinion?
(Bonus points: If Scientology should not have the same tax breaks as the Catholic church, why? There is no more scientific evidence for the legitimacy of Christianity than there is for Scientology. At what point does faith in a certain belief system fail to meet the test of "religion," and instead becomes a "bunch of loonies who have to pay all their taxes?")