The NYTimes is running a 4-part series on the issue of religious organizations and government regulation. It begins today with an overview:

Religious organizations defend the exemptions as a way to recognize the benefits religious groups have provided — operating schools, orphanages, old-age homes and hospitals long before social welfare and education were widely seen as the responsibility of government.

But while ministries that run soup kitchens and homeless shelters benefit from these exemptions, secular nonprofits serving the same needy people often do not. And rather than just rewarding charitable works that benefit society, these breaks are equally available to religious organizations that provide no charitable services to anyone.

Similarly, religious nonprofit groups that run nationwide broadcasting networks, produce best-selling publications or showcase a charismatic leader’s books and speeches can take advantage of exemptions that are not available to secular nonprofit groups — not to mention for-profit companies — engaged in the same activities.

Any government oversight of religious groups must fit within the First Amendment’s command that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

For most of the past half-century, courts interpreted the first part of that clause as a barrier to government action that seemed to treat religious groups more favorably than secular ones, legal scholars said. But today, many lawyers agree, courts are taking a more accommodating view of government actions that benefit religious groups.

Today’s article examines a couple of situations – licensing of day care centers, particularly in Alabama, and a case related to land-use and church expansion in Boulder, Colorado.

It’s truly a delicate dance with inumerable questions on all sides. (An interesting side comparison would be with other non-profits that use up a lot of land and services like private colleges and secondary schools) We’ll have to see if the Times series takes the time to seriously address the concerns that religious groups have about the possible impact of government regulation, particularly regarding the issues of free exercise of religion – especially speech – and employment law.