Chris Geiser, a marginally sane Christian at Food for the Soul tells us that
“anyone who is for taxation of the church is not only a traitor to the U.S. and its citizens but to Christ as well”
Really? That'd be me all right, but why? Well, he blathers,
“the U.S. constitution clearly states that the government of the U.S. cannot make a law concerning a religious establishment”
Well, of course it doesn't say that, but wait … the First Amendment does say
“Congress shall make no law ... prohibiting the free exercise (of religion);”
Jeez, he could be onto something. If my religion tells me it's a sin to pay taxes --- Naw, already been tried, how about this --- MY religion teaches that Christians should be killed; it's called Jihad. Surely Crazy Christian Chris wouldn't want the govt. prohibiting my free exercise of that tidbit.
Everybody else would, though. Damn! That means us churches have to obey the laws just like everyone else. Works for me, since we get all the benefits. But old Chris doesn't want to share his toys; he whines on …
“in America, if a church wants to be separate from the state, it cannot do so”
Good place to stop, that. Of course it can't. How the hell do you be separate from the state? These damn Libertarian types always think it's 1650, and they can go off and have their own little world away from all the big bad government. That's a nice little fantasy.
Y'know, when the Puritans came to America, the winds for the first part of their trip came from Europe heaving a big sigh of relief for getting rid of them. Since we don't have a New World to ship them off to anymore, let's at least tax the bastards to pay their own way.
Y'know, when the Puritans came to America, the winds for the first part of their trip came from Europe heaving a big sigh of relief for getting rid of them. Since we don't have a New World to ship them off to anymore, let's at least tax the bastards to pay their own way.
2 comments:
Although it will make little difference, I need to point out that permitting any religious organization tax-free status violates the doctrine of "taxation without representation". Effectively, permitting a religious organization to avoid taxes that all other businesses and individuals must pay forces the rest of us to support their religious activities, even though said activities are of no benefit to us or even may violate our own religious beliefs OR LACK THEREOF.
If, as is all too often the case, the particular organization in question seeks to be politically active in trying to effect legal or secular changes that favor their agenda in contradistinction to my own, I am being forced to support them financially to my own detriment.
Wow. That's an extremely valid point that I'd never really considered before.
But, yeah. I do have to support that damn church down the street. And even if there is absolutely zero political stuff going on, they're still not doing anything for me. I could say the same thing for a business I do not patronize, but that business still has to pay taxes (at a higher rate than I do, at least for the property), so it's at the very least neutral, if not a net gain for me due to them taking a higher load of the taxes.
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