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The vast majority of churches in my city are small community churches who manage to scrape by. The stereotype of the multimillion-dollar megachurch and the Pastor driving a BMW are used to enrage those who want the church to be taxed. As many have already pointed out, churches provide valuable services to the community wether you attend that church or not, just like the claim that public schools benefit everyone regardless if you have children or not. They provide food banks, homeless shelters, women's shelters, addiction treatment and counseling, soup kitchens, job training services and more. This gives a benefit the entire community. The majority of services aimed at the poor and needy in my city are operated by faith-based organizations. Levy a tax on them are you're indirectly attacking the poor and misfortunate.
I love how liberals want to keep the church out of government but want to the government in the churches. Right in line with their typical hypocrisy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sanspeur
All charities are already tax exempt, so a fair tax paid by churches would have no effect on them...I say they should pay property tax just like all other businesses.
Exactly. Besides if you start taxing the churches thats less money to do charity work which means more people on some type of government assistance, which means the government is going to end up spending that money anyway. So you might as will let the churces do it. Plus they can do it more efficiently than the government.
I really have to take exception to this. How can letting someone keep their own money, cost someone else anything?
People earn a living, and they are taxed. They donate some of their AFTER taxed money to their church. Why should the government tax it again?
It really confuses me, why people actually believe that everything belongs to the government and that if the government LETS someone keep their money, it's costing the government.
BTW, have you read the constitution? Do you know that in all actuality, our tax money should NOT be used to give to other nations, should not be given to other citizens because they don't earn their own living, should not be doled out to the states for education, etc etc... (Education is a states issue anyways.)
In fact, of ALL the money that is spent by our government, if they ONLY spent our tax dollars on things that they are SUPPOSED to spend it on, we would be able to pay off the national debt in out lifetime, AND lower the national income tax. I guess it's too much to hope for though, congress cannot even pass a balanced budget amendment, let alone keep from wasting our money on whatever they please.
That's the communist mentality that most liberals have.
Since everyone knows that all religion is big business, shouldn't all churches and religious institutions be taxed?
You know, if I've read one anti-religious rant on this board, I've read a million, and they are all easily shot down because the foundation of the question is not correct.
First, all churches are non-profit organizations. If you're going to tax churches, you might as well tax the American Red Cross and every other charity on the planet. And just about every church out there is run on a shoestring, essentially spending every dime they receive in the collection plate.
Second, the sheer volume of social work churches perform far, far outweigh the tax losses you seem so outraged about. From soup kitchens to GED classes to daycare to homeless outreach to shelters for battered women, the services my small Episcopal church provides would likely run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if a government agency was paying to have it done. And we provide those services far more efficiently. Multiply that by the number of churches in this country, and you have a vast web of services that would simply vanish into thin air, with no remotely affordable way to replace them.
Money not stolen is a loss?
Caution: criminal mindset at work
Taxes are not stolen money, the Government provides services, like Fire Departments, Education, Police, Roads, sewers, social security ect. and you pay into that. Stolen means you get nothing in return.
Although I do believe like any other non-profit, Churches, Mosques, Synogogs, and any religous institution should be tax expemt.
The money that the 7-11 down the street receives has already been taxed too. Since when is that an argument?
The money they receive isn't donated to them it is money earned in the course of business.
Tell me, do they have a jar next to the register to collect change to help the needy like the one near me has? would you like to see THOSE donations taxed also?
Churches range from money making schemes (scientology comes to mind) to ones that provide many social services. There are of course mainline churches that do little and some that do much. Inner city churches feeding homeless come to mind as ones that do much.
Our church gives many thousands of dollars to a home for former prostitutes and drug addicted women. We also send about 50 members each year to help fix houses in the inner city and like 20 a year fly to The Dominican Rep at their own expense to upgrade Dominicans' homes often being as simple as giving these people a concrete floor rather than a dirt one.
Methinks the bulk of the tax gripers on this thread are type 2 athiests.
type 1 athiest = simply does not believe in god and goes on their way in life. Good bad or indifferent.
type 2 athiest = atheism is their religion in a sense. They do not believe in god and want to rid the world of religion because "they are right and believers are idiots"
Churches range from money making schemes (scientology comes to mind) to ones that provide many social services. There are of course mainline churches that do little and some that do much. Inner city churches feeding homeless come to mind as ones that do much.
Our church gives many thousands of dollars to a home for former prostitutes and drug addicted women. We also send about 50 members each year to help fix houses in the inner city and like 20 a year fly to The Dominican Rep at their own expense to upgrade Dominicans' homes often being as simple as giving these people a concrete floor rather than a dirt one.
Methinks the bulk of the tax gripers on this thread are type 2 athiests.
type 1 athiest = simply does not believe in god and goes on their way in life. Good bad or indifferent.
type 2 athiest = atheism is their religion in a sense. They do not believe in god and want to rid the world of religion because "they are right and believers are idiots"
I'm a proud #1
So, why should I be forced to pay taxes to support your belief system?
If you tax churches, you are taking away the freedom of religion that is guaranteed by the first amendment.
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