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2) Churches aren't for-profit businesses. They're non-profits. And non-profits are tax-exempt.
3) If your argument is that churches are for-profit businesses, then keep in mind that for-profit businesses get subsidies. And they get these subsidies by being actively involved in politics. Ironically, the 501c requirement benefits atheists, because it basically bribes churches to stay out of politics.
The best thing that could happen to the Church would be the elimination of the 501c tax-exemption.
I am Christian. The positions of the Church, however, have me pondering whether to return once mandates are lifted.
There was a time when politics and social justice suggestions were not mentioned on the pulpit. Before Covid, it was a weekly pitch at the church I attended.
It seems the days are past when a sermon was written based on the teachings of the Bible and that invoked self-examination of our actions and place in the world. I miss that. I daresay, we all need that now more than ever.
Beware: Non believers are judged immediately upon death, and find themselves in a state of separation from God and condemnation/punishment from which there will be no escape, either temporally or at the close of the age in eternity....
The Lague of Women Voters has been able to keep their voter education money separate from the politicking on issues moneys for years. Churches could do that, too.
Some churches even have rules on what percentage of income they spend on themselves and on others.
Yes, because it isn't true. It tries to claim that Church attendance is inversely-correlated to the prevalence of the "Christian Right". But the reality is that the most religious states also have the highest prevalence of the "Christian Right". At best it is saying that recent trends indicate higher drops in those states than the national average. But those states had much higher religiosity in the first place.
Furthermore, Europe is much more atheist than the United States, which cannot be explained with the same logic.
The more likely explanation is not that Right-wing Christianity is causing atheism, but that major social changes via the culture-war, have been pushing the few Christians remaining further to the right.
But the real question is, why would anyone choose to believe in god?
Celebrity preacher Joel Osteen is worth $100 million. That's some serious profit there.
I hate the "prosperity-gospel" churches with a passion, but I'm fairly sure that his money comes from selling books and other products. It isn't from the collection plates.
The most ironic thing here is that the Bible specifically prophesied that people would turn away from God as they're now doing in America, probably the last true Christian stronghold left:
2 Timothy 3:1-4
1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."
See? That could have been written about modern day America so if anything, shouldn't the fact that the Bible prophesied something 2,000 years ago that is today's truth cause people to realize that Christianity does have substance and worth and should be taken seriously? How could they have known?
And anyone who uses Joel Osteen, Jim Bakker, or Catholic priests as an excuse not to have a relationship with God, who is none of those people and would not condone what they do, is pretty foolish. The church and its fallen leaders are NOT God. God is pure, they're a mess and a disgrace.
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