As the nation, states, and communities struggle during trying economic times, revoking the tax-exempt status for religious organizations must be considered and is long overdue. This is especially true when groups like Mormons, Catholics, and evangelical Christians contribute to political campaigns that promote their hateful religious agendas, or worse yet, when they preach political issues from the pulpit.
There is separation of Church and State in the United States, and that means religious organizations do not involve themselves in politics to set policy or influence politicians. However, there are instances where the Catholic Church pours money into campaigns against healthcare reform, and the LDS (Mormons) church poured huge amounts of money to defeat gay marriage in California. The campaign in California is most interesting because most of the funds came from Utah.
Around the country, and in the Modesto area, churches put up signs in front of their magnificent buildings urging defeat of gay marriage initiatives, and mobilized their congregations to campaign for discrimination. There were sermons devoted to the evils of gay marriage, and the theme of the sermons was saving traditional marriage and children from the horrors of homosexuality. The twisted reasoning is that allowing gays to marry would destroy conventional marriage, and is an abomination according to the Biblical edict from God.
But God’s laws and injunctions have no place in politics or policy decisions, and candidates have no morals if they take money, endorsements, or support from religious organizations that push for laws that are over 2,000 years old and come from a fairy tale. As with all lobbying groups, there is a price to pay for their support during election time.
Groups like the Tea Party Palinites, and Fox News’ Glenn Beck (Mormon) use God to influence and frighten religious people about the dangers of Obama, Socialism, and the evil gay agenda. Because they use God and money to influence political decisions, all religious organizations have to lose the tax-exempt status.
If the Mormon, Catholic, or evangelical Churches want to run the government, or at least influence decisions made by our representatives, they must lose their tax-exempt status at every level, including the property tax exemption and become lobbyists or a separate political party.
The property tax alone on mega-churches would help communities that struggle for funds. It is especially egregious that most of these buildings sit on prime commercial real estate, and their expansion takes up valuable farmland and public safety resources at a time when cities like Modesto lays off police officers, firemen, and teachers. The property tax alone would fund many positions that the church uses such as police and fire protection.
The scare tactics and fear of damnation for contradicting God usually works on the faithful regardless of the Constitution or their own rule book’s (Bible) exhortation to separate themselves from the government.
Using fear to control the congregation is wrong, but it is their club and they have the freedom to use any obscene tactic to control their adherents. However, when they use their tax-free money and the pulpit to influence policy, they are no better than a lobbyist. Even if they do not try to influence policy, they are no better than a charitable, tax-paying citizen, and must pay their fair share, like Jesus told them to.
Comments
Perhaps you should realize that higher taxes is the scourge not the remedy.
Doing this would solve so many problems. The tax cuts for upper and middle classes could stay in effect if all churches lost their tax exempt status. Also, doing this would make it very apparent which religious organization fully accepts Christ's admonition to "pay back Caesars things to Caesar but God's things to God."
I couldn't agree more with this sentiment.
So very true. If Jesus paid his tax so then should the churches.
dude, you're an idiot... how about they tax you're stupidity?
@Andrew, the suggestion is to curb church sponsored political funding and therefore meant to be a scourge.
Great article though.
Amen.
It would be very hard to take away the taxexempt status. So I believe it should be wittled away like a percent every year.
"dude" your the idiot. The point Jesus made by paying his tax was that NOBODY is exempt from it. Typical brain-dead comment from a brain-dead idiot.
Depends on what the taxes are for, who's accountable and whether there's appropriate transparency.
Faith or religion is fine (keep it to yourself, please) but a Church is a business. HUGE business. Tax the hell out of them!
I dunno if this is actually the answer or not.
Jess
www.true-privacy.es.tc
somehow i don't think it's good policy to tax groups just because you disagree with their politics or morals. I think a lot of non-profits are involved politically on both sides. - And that's ok. If you have a problem with conservative non-profits, there's lot of liberal ones you can/should support that will influence government.
I'm an atheist but disagree. Say what you will about how the churches spend their money, but the truth is most of it goes to help people with much less friction than if the government took up the same task. The states and fed don't "need the money" - they need to tighten their belt like the rest of us.
Thank you! We need more articles like this!
To the author.... you do realize, of course, that the doctrine of Separation of Church and State means that the state connot impose a religion. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the church meddling in state affairs. Just thought you might want to research this glaring error in your missive before you post a retraction.
If a beggar on the street doesn't have to pay taxes then why should the church...they do not have an income, unlike most citizens, and they are not for profit. Charitable donations are not taxable. This is just an anti-church agenda...not an unbiased source worth listening to.
1) All the income churches take in has already been taxed.
2) Even if you stripped churches of their non-profit title, there would be nothing to tax. Any revenue above operating expenses gets donated to missions/causes, therefore net income for a church is always 0 (sometimes negative).
Jesus paying personal tax is different from a corporation paying corporate tax. Every employee of a Church pays tax just like Jesus.
Whatever taxes the corporation would pay would result in a decrease of community outreach in probably 98% of the Churches out there that aren't politically motivated. Sure a few are misusing their position and funds but is punishing all of them the answer? Just punish the ones abusing it.
Who else provides the free meals, homeless programs, abuse assistance and more than so many Churches do? What about all the Pastor's and volunteers who work for low or no pay to help keep as much money as possible free for helping people? There is plenty of good that comes out of Churches whether you believe in Jesus or not.
Andrew, maybe you would care to qualify your statement that higher taxes are the problem. For the last 15 years we have had continuous deregulation of industry and a lowering of taxes to the lowest rates since the first depression. Where did this leave us? At the precipice of a second depression. In court it recently came out that the McCourt family has realized $100 million in profit since 2004 on Dodger Stadium. Do you know how much tax dollars they paid on that $100 million? According to their under-oath statements in divorce court, they paid not even 1 penny in taxes. And where does LA find itself? Cutting services.
I 100% agree with the point of this article. If churches are going to fully involve themselves in politics like they did with prop 8, then they should be paying taxes. Not all churches, mind you, but the politically active ones for sure. That is the price to pay for meddling in the affairs of people's lives.
Fair commentary, but wouldn't diverse tolerance of all beliefs and faiths be more appropriate for the cause? I'll be keeping you in my prayers today.
I agree, no person should be exempt of taxes. As far as I'm concerned I pay higher taxes because they do not pay their fair share.
How about they tax "you are" stupidity?
Hmmm.
I'm not sure that you could win that fight.
Organizations are tax exempt for purposes completely orthogonal to their religiosity.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with the moveon.org organization. They are tax exempt. They are heavily politically influential. Should we remove their exemption because of their political views? If you think so, you've just joined the conservative right in opposition of the liberal moveon.org and are a traitor to your own causes. If you think that moveon.org should retain its exempt status, you are a hypocrite that only finds fault in causes against which you are fighting, and are near-sighted to issues plaguing your own platform.
I doubt that you are a traitor to your own platform, which reduces your argument to that of bias and rant.
To be fair then you would have to remove the tax exempt status of all organizations that contribute to any political cause. But this is not about being fair is it?
Where does it say in the constitution that a church can not promote values that they hold from the pulpit?
Everyone has a religion, even if they do not call it that. Why is it ok to promote the religion of secular humanism on the TV, in public schools, and from every government office?
I'm with dude ... It's clear you're anti-christian and your whole article is tainted that way.
This is an unfair and narrow view of a complex and diverse institution. If individual churches step over the tax-exempt line, they DO lose their status; it's already built into the system. We shouldn't hamper the help that community-minded churches offer to the disadvantaged in a blanket attempt to correct a real problem that only exists in some churches.
Separation of religion and State does not mean religious groups can't be politically active. Just that they don't become part of the government in the form of a state religion with more rights or perks unavailable to others. They have as much right to their views and if they make up the majority then their views SHOULD be represented by government as it's the will of people so to speak. Whether we like it or not that's democracy.
I have to disagree. I'd be concerned if churches were putting money into coffers of political candidates, or supporting one political party over another.
And, although government should not promote one particular flavor of religion, as President Obama has said, "Law is codified morality." And churches are free to support & uphold their view of morality.
Plus, churches put much more money into helping the poor & needy than they do in shaping political landscapes.
Wow, I've seen some stupid, biased writing in my days but this one takes the cake. How moronic can a person get? I'm.. speechless.
"There is separation of Church and State in the United States, and that means religious organizations do not involve themselves in politics to set policy or influence politicians." Really? w w w.usconstitution .net/xconst_Am1.html and en. wikipedia .org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution seem to make it rather clear that Separation of Church and State has to do with prohibiting the government from establishing a national religion or from promoting one religion over another. Non-profit organizations of all types, religious and non-religious, are granted tax exempt status. Your arguments against religious institutions being tax exempt seem to flow more from a hatred of religion then any kind of rational logic.
Agree! No government policy should be influenced by any religion. I can't come up with any logical reason for churches to be tax exempt. In essence, that means we're all paying for public services used by the church. There's your socialism, right-wingers.
the writer of this article has the stupidest notion of what separation of church and state is. The doctrine of separation of church and state does not require religious organizations to stay out of politics (That's called suppression of freedom of speech!) it requires that Government stay out of the business of endorsing particular (or any) religious organizations. Taxing churches would not stop religious organizations from promoting political beliefs. What taxing churches would do is decrease the amount of charity work and community outreach they were able to do. Personally, I'd rather have local churches serving local needs than Big Brother giving hand-outs without any responsibility or moral/spiritual support.
@Adam, "stupidest" is not a word. For example, to say "Adam's argument regarding this article is the stupidest of all" would be incorrect. To say "Adam's argument regarding this article is the most stupid of all" would be a correct way of saying it.
if you push an agenda that changes laws to fit your "ideal" world then you are making a profit just by getting others to do your dirty work. all non profits can lose tax exempt status if they use thier time and space to push for a vote for a special person. if you want to live the life then you must pay for it. where did jesus say you have to change laws to fit your beliefs?
remember jesus said:
6:5 “Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. 7 When you pray, do not babble repetitiously like the Gentiles, because they think that by their many words they will be heard. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
This author isn't intelligent enough to understand what separation of church and state means... wow.
Very sad. Please read the Bill of Rights.
This is a terrible piece of writing. I support gay marriage even. You wrote with extreme bias, and so it weakens your point and angers those that are against your view point.
There are better ways to write and get your point across. This writer needs to really take a look at himself.
If you want to go this route, then please strip the tax exempt status from every NFP that engages in politics and the community, not just the ones you disagree!
agree with the message. article is written like crap though. is this author new to writing?
What is this crap and how did it get on this website?
The purpose of tax exemption for churches is non-interference. We have freedom of religion/worship in the United States. The little church members have left after the government takes their share and life needs are cared for is pooled together for community programs, feeding the hungry and keeping the lights on at their community centers. A church is not a corporate entity (except that they are UNCONSTITUTIONALLY FORCED to incorporate to receive tax-exempt status), but a small group of people (most churches have fewer than 60 people) who worship through education, community service, living as an extended family and financial giving. This is how Christians have worshipped for thousands of years. And the government cannot interfere.
I agree. They need to stop being hypocrites.
you are no better than glenn beck and the churches you complain about in your article.
So an organization spends money on an issue with both moral and ethical implications, and people have to get their panties in a twist over it. No one likes the current health care situation; it is an abomination that needs to be given a clean slate. If marriage wasn't a moral issue, all ceremonies would be overseen by a Justice of the Peace. Get your head out of your ass and stop blaming the churches for what's wrong with our country.
Separation of Church and State does NOT mean that religious groups or organizations may not influence government, but restrict government from interfering in religion. Government may not establish a state church nor prohibit the free exercise. In addition, free speech rights guarantee that the churches may say exactly as they please, and so may you. Neither of you have to like it. One of the things that Free Speech does is guarantee that you will be offended by something you hear. Deal with it.
As for tax exemption, that's a different argument altogether. Whether a not-for-profit organization should be taxed is a question of public policy, but it must apply to ALL not-for-profits. In other words, if you strip churches of this exemption, the Constitution requires that you strip ALL not-for-profits. Otherwise you are interfering with free exercise. So, unless you want United Way, Greenpeace and PETA taxed, you can't tax churches.
You live in a free country. Deal with it.
Well written article. It should be noted the tax-exempt status of churches is already based on the church exiling itself from political leanings. The second a church rants about or pushes a political agenda, they have violated their charter and no longer qualify for tax exemption, as they have now become a lobby. The rules are already there, we just need the IRS to step up and enforce the already written law.
Regarding comments about churches, money and "most of it goes to help people". Explain to me how the Vatican is the wealthiest country in the world and has never, ever has a GDP? You think that money came from giving to the poor and destitute? Wake up! An average of 85% of income given to churches goes directly to administrative costs (paying the crazy salaries of the clergy at all levels), leaving a meager 15% for "good works", which often comes with the strings of missionary rantings in the form of "We'll feed your hungry, but only after you sit through a brainwashing".
NO!! The answer is TAX EXEMPTION FOR *EVERYBODY* !!!
Wow a horrible piece of journalism! I can only wager a guess that the writer leads an "alternative" lifestyle and is angry. I do agree on your article on 1 thing, true religions imitate Jesus in not being involved in goings on in government. The religions you mention should not be preaching about governement or taking political sides, however it is ignorant on your part to assume that this is the reason prop 8 failed. It failed because the people voted it down. No religion holds that much control over it's people. People do what they deem socially acceptable. I sympathise but can't say that I agree with the notion that 1% of the world population should negate what 99% said just because they don't like it. Tuff, there are other states that allow gays to marry, if I were gay and wanted to get married I'd move there.
This article just gives me the impression that the author needed an excuse to lash out at religions in general...perhaps she's bitter?
It's also written to be more anti-Mormon than anti-religion. She tries to incorporate the other religions by phrases such as "groups like Mormons, Catholics, and evangelical Christians" but never mentions what the other religions have done regarding political actions. She only targets what the Mormons have done.
You have to open your minds and stop bickering about Church and Government. I don't like the idea of the church having so much privileges such as BMW's and gourmet meals. I hate politics as well, as they suck up the land and people dry.
Taxing Churches should be done asap. Have the proceeds be used for institutions to care for homeless children, education, those with no food, shelter or even water. The government should have no share of the taxes at all, and the fund be audited by several non-profit organizations.
-Cebuano
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