My hunch is for about as long as they command enough political power to keep it regardless of what they do with it.

Churches can do a lot of things in the name of advocacy and still be legally entitled to their non-profit status. They can advocate for general propositions, including those concerning same-sex marriage. They cannot support or give money to specific candidates. Tobin is walking a very fine line here.

But there’s a history to keep in mind: it was after Jim Jones university, and other segregationist colleges, lost their tax exemption that the religious right entered the political arena in a big way. Other more secular right wing groups had been courting the conservative religious voting block for years without a lot of success. Then it became a matter of money and suddenly it was a godly imperative that they get involved.

You have to figure there’s probably zero support on capital hill for investigating, let alone taking away the tax breaks of right wing churches that engage in politicking. The republicans would have a field day with it if a democratic administration took a conservative church’s tax break away for violating it’s non-profit status.

Now…let the republicans take control again, and liberal churches start doing the same thing, and I guarantee you’ll hear a change of tune…