And it won't make me popular. I don't care. There is a point here that can't be denied especially with an extremely Mormon candidate running. Throughout history, masses of people developed governments and standardized rules to maintain order and protect citizens of a society from anarchy and lawlessness, and although there are exceptions, most reasonable human beings agree that without some degree of discipline and punitive action for lawbreakers, society would break down. In America, it is nearly impossible to imagine a criminal walking into a local police station armed with a machine gun and bank bag full of cash to inform the desk sergeant they had just committed armed robbery and dare law enforcement to arrest and prosecute them. As bizarre as that scenario sounds, there are a growing number of Americans who are robbing their fellow taxpayers, breaking the law, and daring an enforcement agency to prosecute them with impunity, and they are doing it under authority of Christian religious freedom with regularity and on a schedule. However, despite their god-book sensibilities, the law is the law, and in a nation of laws and equality, it is time to prosecute them with extreme prejudice to force them to abide by the law like every other American. According to IRS rules for a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, *a church cannot act “on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office” without jeopardizing their church’s tax-exempt status. However, that rule does not stop Pastor Jim Garlow from standing before true believers at his Skyline Wesleyan Church in California on October 7 prior to the U.S. presidential and congressional elections to urge his flock to vote for, or against, particular candidates. Not only does Garlow anticipate breaking the law, he intends on recruiting many other preachers to join him in an exercise, Pulpit Freedom Sunday, which has been going on since 2008. Last year alone, 539 preachers joined Garlow in flaunting their blatant disregard for the law to force the issue before the courts as a freedom of religion and speech issue in what he calls “the next great awakening to see it just sweep across this nation.” How fitting that a Christian preacher is enlisting countless other religious leaders to break the law to demonstrate their disregard for the Constitution’s Separation of Church and State clause in the 1ST Amendment while they rob American taxpayers and their communities of desperately needed funds. Because churches are exempt from filing financial statements with the IRS like every other tax-exempt non-profit are that combined federal tax breaks on donations to churches and exemptions from state and local property taxes most likely add up to approximately $25 billion in lost revenue each year. For example, in New York City, roughly 9,500 churches, temples, and mosques avoided paying over $626 million in property taxes this year because they operate as tax-free institutions, and as communities across the country are struggling financially and laying off teachers, police officers, firefighters, and maintenance workers (something Willard Romney approves of), it is a travesty that religious leaders like Garlow are thumbing their noses at the law that allows them to suck much-needed revenue from taxpayers and communities with impunity. http://www.politicususa.com/celebra...-taxpayer-welfare-eligious-organizations.html
Be expecting multiple neg reps in rapid succession from"them". They are meeting as i type this and the consesus will be " lets neg rep the pagan heathen"
Sok. If they have to neg rep the truth (not just personal opinion which can be skewed) then it shows how small and insignificant their lives must really be. "Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it." John Adams "In the long run, nothing can withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction religion offers to both is palpable." Freud
Religion is a business and thus they should be treated as such. I mean hey, aren't charitable organizations paying some sort of tax already?
I believe any organization engaged in profitable enterprise should be taxed, regardless of whether they are spiritual in nature or not. Proselytizing is one thing, employees and payroll, audio/visual departments, construction, religious stores, etc are another thing entirely.
The main bitch here is that they use resources (the same used in other community services..such as fire and police) and don't contribute to tht use. They take but don't give back in a general "everybody" kind of way. Police, teachers, firefighters..they all pay taxes and do good works for the community. They are taxed. So should the churches be. The churches are specific. To spread their form of religion. It is NOT a free speech issue and is NOT protected under the constitution. They are in direct violation of a federal law. They can campaign from the pulpit all they bloody well like. But they must pay taxes on their donations to do so. When you have the power to influence the people who right the governing laws of a nation.. You MUST contribute your fair share. The numbers are are drastic given the straights we are as a country. To continue to recieve benefits from the government in this way while "actual" people who help everyone, not just people of their flock are being laid off because we can no longer afford the services is very shameful. We, as a whole nation, should be ashamed of it. But if pastors and fathers are going to use tax exempt status to then get fellow "faithers" into government, the abuse will continue.
