Owen, I'm behind in posts but wanted to comment further. The premise you raised had me mulling this all over the past few days. I did originally interpret Tax Free to be criticizing the crass opportunism of the TV evangelists. I previously thought the Rod Steiger bit at the end seemed out of place in the theme, except that it was an well-done artistic device, almost farcical, used to portray a type of narrow-minded, fire and brimstone, tent revival style preacher.
I see now from Joni's remarks that her point was more about separation of church and state. I read a few articles about Robertson the other night (tried my best to not pay any attention to him in the 80s) and apparently he may well have been crossing the line in a big way by getting involved in political situations in Central and South America at the time through his missionary operations. When others have to pay for airtime to put forth their political beliefs, it is unfair that another group can put forth their opinions for free - tax free. So Joni is right either way on this principle. On the other hand, by making the point by somehow implying that those who railed against the actions of Castro, Khomeni and Kaddafi are somehow wrong or bad is a whole other, perplexing to me, question. I just can't see that those preachers or politicians would be motivated to think they would have to convince their congregations that those guys are not so cool. They would probably already be preaching to the choir. I think a lot of people have short memories (myself included since I had to refresh mine on this) but Khomeni and Kaddafi were some of the principal brokers of terrorist attacks against Americans in the '80s. From 1979 to 1989 they or their collaborators were behind around 20 terrorist acts (bombings of embassies, military barracks, ships, hijackings) against Americans and others abroad. They were the Bin Ladens of their day. This brings me back to what Bobsart posted in his critique of the song a few days ago. The song is great in many ways and the sentiment in general was right, but the way she expressed it in part did apparently show her biases and it does not give a more universal assessment of the topics she raises. It ultimately falls short in that regard. Kakki
