See:  you may have heard of the cozy digs and living arrangements at a former Convent, DC's C Street Center where numbers of evangelical Christian Congressmen and Senators...ah...mingle. Nevada ex-Senator John Ensign frequented the pad prior to his resignation in a philandering and $$ scandal two years back. In fact, you would have had no chance of hearing of the C Street home unless several of its residents hadn't been snatched up in numbers of sex scandals in the past few years, including former South Carolina Governor,

                                   Mark

'With-Argentina-I'm-So-Weary-&-Weepy-In-Love-Oh-Snap!-I-Guess-I-Won't-Be-President-Now'

                                   Sanford.

     I've no issue with Senators and Congressmen sharing town-homes-away-from-home -- that's common. And if they share the same religious passions (in addition to their more earthy ones), who am I to object?

    C Street Center

     Yet I do question, and so should you, not their religion, not  their living arrangement, and not their choices of women who aren't their wives. For all I care they can have a spirited  interest in the Baboon House at the DC Zoo.

     But their impious interest in my dough? That's a problem.

        For years this C Street Center has enjoyed tax-free status masquerading as a church, receiving the perks a legitimate church gets--that is, it gets my money and your money in the form of a pretty substantial tax break. And a coalition of mainline ministers are so angry, so embarrassed, it has been demanding the fraud end. The mainstream ministers say that, far from being a church, even if there is daily prayer and some wayward congressional soul-searching, the house is far more a club for powerful (if often backsliding) men.

     C Street does not teach the public, as a church does, nor does it have the internal structure of a church. There is nothing vaguely like a church leadership there. (There isn't even a choir -- though there may be choir boys.)

     It also, because it has IRS church-designation, doesn't have to open its books. Ever.

     Its donations and support are secret, whether its tithings (and rents) come from sincere individuals or, say, from corporations or individuals with a sincere interest in, say...legislation.

   The mainline ministers who want C Street's tax-free status ended are right. The IRS should pounce on this scam as it does any flim-flam.

     Just leave My Sincere Ordination the hell alone.