The advancement of religion?

[motocicleta]

Churches do not in any respect deserve tax-exempt status. This has always been true, since the good work such as feeding the poor that churches do is also covered by the US tax code. If a church is helping society by doing such good works, then they clearly qualify as a 501c3 without the cloak of religion. If, on the other hand, they can only hang their hat on the "advancement of religion", then they should have their tax exempt status revoked. Every church.

The fact is that churches all over the US are advocating for political candidates and parties, and even collecting monies to take away the rights of Americans. Enough. There is a good reason that churches are not allowed to get into politics; it's called the separation of church and state.

I say to America's churches now: you have abused your rights. You have allowed power to corrupt you, and it has done so absolutely. Go back to administering to the least among us, and get out of the business of limiting civil rights. This is your only warning.

[begin_within]

1. Churches have failed on their own, so are trying to metastasize into the public/legal sphere

by "failed on their own" I mean they have been unable to control enough of the population just by being churches, and have now turned into political cancers.

[motocicleta]

2. We must excise these cancers.

There is no good reason a church should be tax-exempt just because it is a church.

[katandmoon]

3. ICAM. I've never understood the tax exempt thing when they eat up the same tax-supported resources

The rest of us do. That means the rest of us end up subsidizing them and their hateful bigotry.

[motocicleta]

4. They are not always bigoted

but they have no special reason to be tax-exempt when NGOs deserve tax exempt status for actually helping people. The difference between churches and cults? Doing good works for the least among us. Do all churches deserve that status? Clearly not in 2008.

[Chulanowa]

5. There was a time where the churches actually DID help out the poor

In fact, most Christian churches and organizations of any size were, until the 1950's or so, of a clear socialist bent. They would go out of their way to help someone out. Most didn't really care if you bought into the bedtime stories, so long as you didn't throw it back into their faces after taking help.

In other words, for a portion of American history, a great many churches were charitable organizations that often ran into the red due to that charity and ended up relying on the care of the congregation (the tradition of the pastor coming over for dinner wasn't a social event - the dude was hungry). In light of that, religious organizations at large were given tax exemption - couldn't pick and choose which churches would and wouldn't, because that would be a violation of the first amendment (some churches good, other churches not)

But that was then. Since the rise of McCarthyism and mass media, the socialist church model gave way to the "kill Russia and all sodomites" style of religion. This only got worse as the evangelicals stuck their suckers to the likes of Nixon and Reagan. Or the other way around.

Remove blanket tax exemption from churches. But allow individual churches to file for exemption with proof of lots of charity and evidence of having been in the red pre-tax. By individual churches, I mean the buildings / groups and people who run them - one Catholic church would gain an exemption, but the Catholic Church as a whole wouldn't.

[Blue State Blues]

6. Remove blanket tax exemption

Remove blanket tax exemption from churches. But allow individual churches to file for exemption with proof of lots of charity and evidence of having been in the red pre-tax. By individual churches, I mean the buildings / groups and people who run them - one Catholic church would gain an exemption, but the Catholic Church as a whole wouldn't.

I like that idea. Or remove blanket exempt status and have them file itemized deductions for qualifying charitable work just like tax payers file itemized deductions for charitable donations.

The relatively new trend of evangelical mega churches has created very profitable tax-exempt investments that have nothing to do with a church's original mission (real estate investments, gyms) and these profits are reflected in the salaries of the pastors. If a church operates as a business, it should be taxed as one.