Tax the churches

by startingover 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  startingover

  I came upon this letter to the editor in my morning newspaper:

  Churches ought to be taxed like others

  After Sept. 11, 2001, I think it was Jerry Falwell who said that it happened because people turned away from God. And, recently Frnaklin Graham said the same thing about New Orleans and made negative remarks about the muslim religion.

  What concerns me is not that these people would make these remarks but that people would be stupid enough to follow people like them and other wannabes like: Pat Robertson, Bob Jones, Jim Bakker, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggert..

  We don't need preachers involved with the government, city, police or sheriff's department. But, if people want it, that's OK. Let's just tax churches like everybody else and have the state regulate them. They inspect the food we buy and the places we build. Doctors have to have a license, why not the churches? How do we know if they're crooked or not? Who's policing them? People have been hurt by churches and pastors, and lost lots of money.
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  ICBehindtheCurtain

  Amen to that!
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  metatron

  and another Amen!

  Impose a minimum tax for police and fire protection in local areas.

  metatron
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  Finally-Free

  I think any charitible organization should be closely regulated to make sure a certain amount of revenue actually is used for charitible purposes. (like running a soup kitchen or something)

  The Watchtower rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars but do NOTHING that even remotely resembles charitible work. When I was Account Sevant the only charitible work the congregation paid for was to send flowers to a funeral once. Surplus money is always transferred to their other corporations, which are also charitible organizations. They use the money to improve or acquire real estate.

  W
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  Cellist

  I think they should be fully taxed like any other business. With all the proper regulations in place.

  Cellist
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  startingover

  I really like when stuff like this is sent in and published, because in a couple of days I will get to read the backlash.

  One thing that stuck in my mind when I read it this morning...the name ORAL Roberts. Everytime I can't help but think about...oh never mind.
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  telltruth

  finally-free, i agre 100%. if the wt and its affiliates were taxed the way all businesses should be they would no doubt be in trouble. someone pointed out on another thread that although jw's are way,way down on the list of followers, they rank number 4(four) on the list of "churches owned". just think of all the commercial and property tax they would be responsible for. abso everything about the wt has some form of evasion in it. business disguised as church/religion......telltruth
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  Navigator

  Bad Idea! The power to tax is the power to destroy. The founders of our nation were wise enough to recognize that. I know that some churches stretch the bounds on tax law and should be taxed on some of their activity, but you don't want to put that power in the hands of government. What if the muslims became a majority in this country? Do you think that they would hesitate for one minute to tax the Christian churches out of existence?