I feel that this estimate includes money-making operations that, while owned by religious organizations, earn money for essentially secular reasons. Examples: I’m not a Seventh-Day Adventist, nor are my parents, but still I was born at an Adventist hospital, because it was the closest hospital; universities like Georgetown and Notre Dame make tons of money for reasons unrelated to their Catholic affiliation, especially for football at Notre Dame (despite all the evidence, NCAA football is technically not a religion). Obviously such enterprises should be included in a total estimation of how much revenue is generated by religious organizations in the US, but I would like to know how much is from people paying/donating for secular things and how much is due to people’s religiosity.
3 Likes
