I don't want to go church bashing and I don't know how it is in the US but in Australia church run enterprises pick up a lot of government contracts for job placement, school chaplaincy and delivery of social services. Also church run schools receive a lot of public funding (sometimes in excess or poor public schools) while still pocketing large fees. And they do this without having to pay taxes. I am mainly concerned about this in Aus because of the denial of qualified counselling services to kids in favour of evangelism and the Internet and games censorship lobby. But there is no doubt the anti-gay lobby here is primarily driven by religious organisations and I don't doubt they benefit from the lobbying capabilities and funding that comes from being close with government.
Be careful about the funding claims. Australian public schools receive their funds from both state and federal governments. Private schools receive funds only from the federal government. Generally (always?) public schools receive more government funding than private schools, but splitting of their income source may mean that they receive less from a single government source than a private school.
In the US, one could argue some churches do the same. They get a lot of breaks for government outreach contracts and are generally non-profit entities.
I'm a non-mormon living in Salt Lake City, Utah, so I might be biased against churches though.
