Mack Kidd, B. A. Smith and Yeakel, Justices

“ Religion, for all the various definitions that have been given of it, must surely mean the devotion of man to the highest ideal that he can conceive. And that ideal is a community of spirits in which the latent moral potentialities of men shall have been elicited by their reciprocal endeavors to cultivate the best in their fellow men. ”

“ Having held that the Comptroller's requirement that a group believe in a Supreme Being, applied as the sole test for determining the grant of religious tax exemptions, violates the First Amendment, we now hold that, under the Malnak analysis, Ethical Culture qualifies as a religion for First Amendment purposes. ”

“ Ethical Culture is not merely a disassociated string of ethical commitments, but a commitment to a particular discipline of spiritual observation. The emphasis the Society places on what Adler described as the "reality producing functions of the mind" focuses its members on deriving moral commitment from an understanding of human psychological experience and offers an absolute, and universal, basis on which Ethical Society members are to structure their own lives. ”

“ Ethical Culture's practices and beliefs, in our opinion, address ultimate concerns and present a comprehensive belief system. Without question, their practices and rituals constitute the external signs of a religion. In short, the Ethical Society manifests its spiritual beliefs through organized observance; we cannot say that this activity falls outside of the scope of the First Amendment's protection, and we believe, therefore, that it must fall within the legislature's intent in granting the tax exemptions in question. ”

“ While Yoder restates the principle that the First Amendment protects religions, as opposed to purely personal belief systems, it neither introduces a new concern into the Court's religion analysis nor articulates a workable test for distinguishing personal from religious beliefs. The protection of the freedom of religious conscience, without regard to majority opinion, has been an element of American law since the founding of the Republic. ”

“ This is more than a simple statement that they consider "life" to be an example of religious experience; it is a commitment to an attempt to discover, through observance and debate, the transcendent moral truths that underlie human experience. ”

“ We also recognize that the State has a compelling interest in insuring that only qualified religious organizations receive the tax exemption--it cannot be sufficient for a group simply to label itself as a religion in order to enjoy tax-exempt status. ”

“ Furthermore, beyond simply asserting the primacy of a particular narrow idea or assumption, Ethical Culture attempts to create a comprehensive response to the problems faced in life based on a common contemplative practice. While it is true that Ethical Culture congregations welcome leaders trained in other religious traditions, including priests and rabbis, such pluralism is not inconsistent with a wide religious viewpoint attempting to assimilate various opinions about religious faith. ”

“ In 1995, the Ethical Society, then known as the "Ethical Culture Fellowship of Austin," organized the first ethical culture group in Texas. Society members characterize themselves as "ethical humanists," sharing the unifying belief that "within the human experience ethics is central." (1) In 1996, the Society applied with the Comptroller's Office for tax-exempt status from sales, use, excise, hotel, and franchise taxes as a "religious" organization. ”

“ Because the scope of religious belief defies easy characterization, we believe that a constitutionally sufficient inquiry cannot be bound by this particular common understanding of religion. Otherwise, the courts would find themselves as a matter of law declaring entire belief systems that certainly qualify as religions-- such as Buddhism, Taoism, and some strains of Unitarianism--to be outside of the First Amendment's protection. ”

“ It is not enough to show that an individual's actions are based on deeply held convictions as manifested in their daily lives; rather our analysis should inquire as to whether those convictions are based on a uniform and articulable set of principles which lay a claim to universal application. ”

“ Our assessment of the scope of the questions posed by Ethical Culture might be debatable. There can be no doubt that Ethical Culture attempts to address the religious needs of its members without reference to a God or a supernatural reality. ”

“ Instead, we hold that belief in a supernatural reality must serve, at most, as part of a broader inquiry that investigates both an organization's beliefs and the means by which those beliefs are put into action. ”

“ In making this determination, the Court observed that:
[a] way of life, however virtuous and admirable, may not be interposed as a barrier to reasonable state regulation of education if it is based on purely secular considerations; to have the protection of the Religion Clauses, the claims must be rooted in religious belief. ”

“ The Malnak test gives a court the basis on which to determine whether an unfamiliar religion is entitled to First Amendment protection by comparing it to familiar religions. The test requires that a set of beliefs: (1) address fundamental and ultimate questions having to do with deep and imponderable matters such as the meaning of life and death or man's role in the universe; (2) be broad in scope and comprehensive in nature ”

“ The Comptroller takes the position that Ethical Culture does not meet the Malnak test because the inclusion of a transcendental being or metaphysical experience is essential to making the case that a new religion is analogous to a traditionally recognized religion. ”

“ As Justice Clark stated in Seeger, the distinction between personal and religious beliefs is inherently difficult because "in no field of human endeavor has the tool of language proved so inadequate." ”

“ Those services are led by a group of clergy, most of whom have been educated at theological institutes and seminaries. The same trained clergy perform life cycle rituals, including marriages and naming ceremonies. The services are supplemented with religious instruction for children. The Ethical Society of Austin has such meetings, coordinated by professional clergy, and meets regularly on Sundays. Taken together, these factors indicate to us a sincere attempt by the Ethical Society, and its sister groups, to undertake to provide the benefits of a traditional religion. ”

“ Such concerns might include the worship of a Supreme Being; more generally, they include attempting to situate man within existence and resolving questions having to do with such things as life and death, right and wrong, or good and evil. Id. By focusing on the nature of the questions posed by a group, the court is put in a better position to compare that group to others that are clearly religious, while avoiding the grant of tax-exempt status to groups that, by any definition, should not be considered religious. ”

“ Most importantly, some of these organizations have not even bothered to set up a separate corporate entity and have funneled their funds, which they claim to have been used for religious purposes, into the private accounts of individuals who have used that money almost exclusively for personal expenses. ”