… all religious institutions, that is…As it stands now, religious institutions can own land and pay no property taxes, without serving the community at large. They can earn income tax free, and that can pay employees tax-free.This means we all are FORCED to pay higher taxes to support the churches. If they paid their own way, our taxes would be reduced and our social services would not decrease.If a church cares to give to the community to achieve tax-exempt status, well, that’s wonderful. It must be substantial (no bake sales) and it must selflessly serve the community outside the membership (American Atheists has an open public library on premises). Am I crazy? No. I’m right. Our taxes are too high, and allowing the churches to skip out is un-American and illegal.
3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian World.
4. Baptists do not recognize each other at Hooters.
I dont care who you are thats funny right there!
ron,
You’re right, that is funny.
Could have done it in one post though.
Gawd help us.
phreedm:
Okay, I got 1 for ya.
http://the-goddess.org/blog/2006/03/some-animals-are-more-equal-than.html
“The space reserved for Stewart, right next to Chief Warrant Officer John Flynn, his comrade from Sparks who also died in the attack as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, is vacant.
Stewart was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which is not recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs for use in its cemeteries.
Stewart’s widow, Roberta, said she will wait until her family’s religion — and its five-pointed star enclosed in a circle, with one point facing skyward — is recognized for use on memorials before Stewart’s plaque is installed.
“It’s completely blank,” Roberta Stewart said, pointing to her husband’s place on the memorial.”
Soooo….please share your views w/us on this 1.
Share the love, baby.
That’s pretty stupid. It should be any dead man’s right to put any damn thing on his grave that he wants.
“We’re sorry, but your dead husband can’t state on his grave which religion he was in life UNLESS he was a follower of one of our APPROVED religions”
Seriously.
Good grief I better check and see if I’m ok!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
double posting moron
(but in my book thats a compliment what could be better than more-Ron!?)
ron
Double posting is usually just one click too many of a button, resulting in the same post twice.
Your two posts are slightly different. You spelled grief correctly in the second one. Congratulations.
Whether you OR your religion are “OK” has got to be highly debatable.
What IS the official emblem for a “sorta” Christian anyhow?
“We’re sorry, but your dead husband can’t state on his grave which religion he was in life UNLESS he was a follower of one of our APPROVED religions”
gotta love the trampling of the first amendment
good greif! I better check and see if mine is ok!
A fish
There is a fallacy in assuming that because someone else’s taxes go up, yours will go down. Governments are usually very good at spending ~all~ of the tax revenue they collect
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I have a perfect example of why churches should be taxed for their income. Across the street from my boyfriend’s house is a Methodist church. This church owns a bookstore, a gym, a theatre, a park, and will soon be buying more land to build even more. The money generated by these places (who all severely overcharge) goes directly to the church, who always puts it to “great use” buying more land and making more stores. At another church in the area, a Catholic church, the new priests who start working there drive the shittiest of cars, yet after a few months they can afford BMWs. Also, at the Rape Crisis Center here, women sometimes come in that cannot return to their homes for fear of being hurt, so the center has to rely on the generosity of others to find a place for them to stay. One of the local churches that was doing exceptionally well at this point in time was asked to pay for ONE of the women to stay at a motel, something like $20-$30 a night (the church could easily afford it), but the church refused. I guess I’m just confused, but isn’t one of their religious teachings that you should help the less fortunate? Like I say, religion, like communism and democracy, sounds very pretty in theory, but in practice is horribly corrupted. It’s kind of interesting, though, just how many people use “god” as a marketing tactic, or at least here in the Bible Belt. Some businesses even offer you a discount if you bring them the Sunday newsletter from your church. Others use the word “saintly” in their business’s name hoping it will attract more customers.
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Tax the church!!! I’ve been saying that on Netscape blogasphere for weeks now, and here I find someone has scooped me. Well, damn you evil atheists, it was MY idea first. I thought it up all my my self. Churches are selling heaven, angels, afterlife, god and demi-gods, demons, devil, pergatory, hell….and other tooth fairy level fairy tales to opiate the masses, so the masses won’t rise up and kill the ruling class. They’ve been doing it for years. The Bush family and other powerful ruling superrich elites have been studying this Saudia Arabia type system for years, and have succesfully implimented about 90% of the way. Its Fallwellian. Tax the church is a great idea, but first get rid of the superrich sock puppets that are making the law and have all the power, and control the message by owing the media.
Uhm, you were beat by at least 150 years.
DNA:
Ummm…try somewhere in the neighborhood of 190 years:
During his presidency, Madison stood firm on his principles, including the principle of the separation of church and state. Madison objected to state-supported chaplains in Congress, and to the exemption of churches from taxation.
http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/305/foundfathers.htm
Since Big Religion has ALWAYS played a part in politics, they should be treated as a business, with hundreds of thousands of lobbyists.
Look what can happen when a supervisor’s religious harassment intrudes into the workplace:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MY0i3ILOHA
Who pays?
YOU pay!
churchbegone
What’s the story behind the video? Did the guy get a big settlement because of a lawsuit? The title mentions Christian harassment and big money and
the guy in the video alludes to somebody thinking he shouldn’t be allowed to have a job. Was HE the supervisor you mentioned?
What exactly are the laws around the non-profit status of churches? I read somewhere that if they are actively involved in politics (promoting 1 candidate above another) that this violates the rules? How does one find out exactly and report abuses to start getting these crooks taxed?
sparky,
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is an organization that really keeps on top of this kind of stuff and is very proactive in both warning and educating churches about illegal political activity. They regularly file lawsuits when abuse is found. Their website is http://www.au.org.
OK, so the right wing christians are all going to gather in San Diego on Nov. 1, 2008 to fast, pray, and make phone calls to residents of California to vote Yes on Prop 8. How is this not political? How do they keep their tax exempt status when they are doing these things all over the place? TAX THEM ALL. I am so sick of this!