Pastors Push Back Against 'Annual Registration Fee'

One Illinois city says it's charging churches a fee, but church leaders call it an unfair 'tax.'

After the city's director of emergency services delivered an opening prayer, the City Council took up some standard issues—maintenance of a traffic light, filling in a pot hole.

But eventually the council members got around to Item 8E—the reason City Hall was filled with pastors on a Thursday night.

On its face, Item 8E—an amendment to an ordinance requiring safety inspections for businesses—seems like standard City Council fare.

In reality, it touches on one of the most fundamental and contentious aspects of American democracy: the separation of church and state. And it has pitted the pastors in one of the most church-packed cities in the country against a municipal government whose council members sit in their pews on Sundays. Read more