In the aftermath of a Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide, TIME Magazine published a piece by columnist Mark Oppenheimer recommending that tax exempt status for churches and religious institutions should be put to an end.

“Rather than try to rescue tax-exempt status for organizations that dissent from settled public policy on matters of race or sexuality, we need to take a more radical step. It’s time to abolish, or greatly diminish, their tax-exempt statuses,” Oppenheimer wrote.

According to Oppenheimer, the IRS should not have to decide which institutions are religious in nature. He also argued that religious charities that help those in poverty would be unnecessary because the government would have the money to provide for the needy.

He wrote, “Defenders of tax exemptions and deductions argue that if we got rid of them charitable giving would drop. It surely would, although how much, we can’t say. But of course government revenue would go up, and that money could be used to, say, house the homeless and feed the hungry. We’d have fewer church soup kitchens — but countries that truly care about poverty don’t rely on churches to run soup kitchens.”

Oppenheimer said that the Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling could very well spark a reexamination of tax exemptions for churches, and when it happens, “it will be long overdue.”

The trailer for “Audacity,” a film addressing homosexuality by Evangelist Ray Comfort, has been removed from YouTube. The Blaze reports that the video site removed the trailer after it had been viewed 130,000 times.

In place of the trailer, a message appears on YouTube that reads, “This video has been removed as a violation of YouTube’s policy against spam, scams, and commercially deceptive content.”

Comfort, who is famous for sharing scripture with strangers on the street, believes that the trailer was taken down because it suggests that no one is born a homosexual.

He said, “The foundation for the gay argument is that homosexuals (like people of color) are born that way, and like someone’s race, should never be discriminated against. The trailer shows a number of people changing their minds about homosexuals being born that way because I asked them two simple questions. It’s pretty unnerving for the ‘I can’t help being gay argument,’ and so they decided to censor us. Or to put it another way, they discriminated against us because of our religion.”

In a statement, YouTube said, “While we don’t comment on individual videos, YouTube does have strict spam and metadata policies. If a video is flagged by our community that violates these policies it is removed.”

But comfort argues that the “Audacity” trailer did not violate any policies at all.

“Watch the two-minute trailer and see if you can find spam, a scam or anything commercially deceptive,” he said. “All we want is to be treated fairly.”

The trailer can still be viewed at GodTube.com. “Audacity” is available to download here.

7 July 2015 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today strongly condemned attacks by Boko Haram in Lake Chad Basin countries, including the deliberate targeting of Christian and Muslim worshippers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Nigeria’s northeast states of Borno and Yobe.

“The Secretary-General takes note of [Nigerian] President Muhammadu Buhari’s determination to root out this menace, and commends the countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission and Benin for their steadfast efforts in the fight against Boko Haram,” according to a statement issued this evening by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson in New York.

News agencies report that extremist violence against both Muslims and Christians left dozens of people dead in Nigeria’s northern town of Zaria earlier today. This follows nearly a week of deadly Boko Haram-led attacks in the region, including over the weekend, described in the media as bombings and indiscriminate shooting into crowds of civilians.

In his statement, Mr. Ban extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims.

“The Secretary-General renews his calls to support the operationalization of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) through the provision of the requisite political, logistical, and financial resources and necessary expertise, consistent with international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law,” the statement concluded.

Earlier in the afternoon, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa (UNOWA), briefed the Security Council on the situation in the region, including on the activities of Boko Haram.

Since May, he said, Boko Haram had stepped up its attacks in the Lake Chad Basin area – not only in Nigeria, but also in Niger and Chad – mainly against civilian targets, although the structure and capacity of the group for conventional warfare had been largely destroyed through regional action supported by international partners, which he called commendable.

He said that further vigilance and coordinated regional action against Boko Haram was needed, however, and more support from all partners remained crucial. Addressing the root causes of the insurgency was a requirement for lasting stability. In addition, a coordinated post-conflict strategy was required to help restore living conditions and allow the return of displaced persons.