When will the US begin taxing Churches?

[LBJefferies]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You cant

Well I don't know about that. We could say that in order to be tax exempt, churches must pay church employees only modest sums of money relative to the cost of living of where the church is located, and they must donate all money, after payroll and operating costs, to charity. I have a feeling they are already required to do this stuff though, correct? How exactly do those televangelists make so much money?

[mar1t1me]

^^^ Part of religious freedom is accepting the wheat AND the chaff, and hoping people are smart enough to tell which is which.

They apparently aren't.

[mrsleeve]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You cant

[LBJefferies]

Since I am not a religious person anymore, part of me wants to say fuck the churches. However, the church that I went to as a kid was very community oriented and was filled with good people. These people donated A LOT of money to good causes and sent me to Central America. The problem I think is when churches become businesses like those televangelist churches and the church of Scientology. Where/how do we draw the line between the two?

[decay]

if what we're worried about is balancing the budget, how about we just take them off the dole, rather than trying to decide how we get our own money back out of them.

[mrsleeve]

Really I would just like to see them paying property taxes on all the shit they own. But still leave them alone with the income taxes.

[Farbin Kaiber]

^ That's what I'm talking about, the slow, leveraged buyout of religious freedom.

[decay]

Government gives discounts to churches that start following "programs" of the government, church starts preaching government propaganda to the mindless masses. Thus living under the American Crown.

that has been happening, for almost 10 years now. only it's grants, not discounts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Office_of_Faith-Based_and_Neighborhood_Partnerships

For fiscal year 2005, more than $2.2 billion in competitive social service grants were awarded to faith-based organizations.

[Farbin Kaiber]

^ That.

[Vedubin01]

?? tin foil.....

Say if Government starts taxing Churches, Government gives discounts to churches that start following "programs" of the government, church starts preaching government propaganda to the mindless masses. Thus living under the American Crown.

[Farbin Kaiber]

What I'm saying is if this changes, the entire freedom of religion actions sought after by our forefathers will have been in vain. We will have thrown away everything they based this country after. Taxation of religious entities, will undoubtedly land them in the pockets of those who determine how much money they owe each quarter. Thus, the freedom afforded these entities will have been absolved, and power transferred to the bigwigs in control.

[decay]

i don't quite see how taxing churches equates to living under a religious monarchy.

[LBJefferies]

If it happens, We will be well on our way to living under the rule of the American Crown.

Please explain...

[Farbin Kaiber]

Do you know what you are saying? Do you have any idea what this means to our society?

[decay]

i'd also love to see this happen, but i don't think it will.