This is thinking in public, a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about

front-line theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them.

I'm Albert Moa, your host and president

of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

in Louisville, Kentucky.

Mark Oppenheimer writes the regular beliefs column

for the New York Times and also reports for the Atlantic, the nation, this American life, and other major media.

He has a doctorate in American Religious History from Yale and directs the Yale Journalism Initiative.

He is also the host of a new podcast, Unorthodox on Jewish

religious issues. Mark Oppenheimer, welcome to thinking in public. So Mark, tell me

what exactly were you up to with this op-ed piece that ran right after the Obergefell decision

calling for an end to tax exemptions for religious institutions. There's so many other

things I want to talk to you about that that's kind of the one thing we got to

talk about before we get to anything else. Right that's that's that's kind of the one thing we got to talk about before we get to

anything else right that's that's my new calling card that's the one that's made me

famous of late so the first thing of course is as you know because you've read it

it's not a piece specifically about

religious institutions not a piece specifically about

conservative or traditional religious institutions

it's about non-profit institutions

uh... of which religious institutions make up some

significant percentage but I don't know that they make up the majority

...