Not taxing churches is taking as estimated $71 billion from our economy every year. Watching one of the late night talk show and the host mention how much dough we could have to help the poor if the churches were taxed. I check to see and I B-damn, Mormon church spends 7% of its annual income on charity, the average for churches are 29% to help the poor. Red Cross uses 92.1% of it's revenues for physical assistance and 7.9% on operating expenses. I wonder about JW....
No atheist could possible hope to win an election in today's political climate, BUT.....
by James Mixon 13 Replies latest watchtower bible
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DesirousOfChange
Churches should be taxed just like any other business with deductions allowed for their GIFTS of charity.
Put it on the ballot! It will pass!
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Simon
Atheists are the largest and fastest growing denomination.
We are the group that ALL religious fear. For good reason. We threaten them like no other religious group does because they are all just different horses on the same merry-go-round.
At some point the US will catch up with the west of the civilized and secular world and realize that belief in a supernatural god should disqualify you from political office, not be a requirement for it.
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WTWizard
What do churches do? Nothing useful. Their job is to guide souls to salvation, not lie and threaten people for trying to use their souls and find where they are going. Most churches teach that even basic astrology is a mortal sin, let alone how to work around basic problems in your chart. Churches also teach that most meditations (that is, those that can actually assist people in finding their souls), communication with the astral, and even properly celebrating pagan holidays are sins. And when they concede, they corrupt things so people do not find their souls.
And they are getting tax breaks for this? They are doing the opposite of what they are supposed to be doing. They should be taxed right out of business, since most of their works involve making the members destitute. They are expected to donate heavily, and the jokehovians are among the worst (they also have to quit good jobs for "scripture" (usually bogus) or because it interferes with serving joke-hova. The leaders do poverty and damnation workings on the flock, and it shows blatantly in their "Poverty is a virtue" rubbish they put out. The 2016 Grand Boasting Session blatantly shows that they make misery and stagnation into something glamorous. This programs the soul to take in poverty and general hardship. Is that what they were commissioned to do? I don't think so, and the jokehovians are among the worst in programming souls to take in hardship.
Yes, tax them right out of business. Yes, audit all of them. (And I mean full audit, not just a quickie). Yes, confiscate the resources of those at the top. Yes, prevent them from taking money from the members under threats of damnation or that joke-hova demands more money (as if we owe that thing anything). Every congregation, every circuit, and the whole religion deserves audits as a unit, and they deserve harsh penalties if they try and avoid answering truthfully. And the funds should be returned as benefits for those whose souls they have programmed to receive hardship.
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Simon
Apparently, there is no "test" for religious tax exemption.
Everyone should declare themselves a religion. Force the government to define the rules better so as to exclude some of them.
The IRS was too busy going after conservative groups (apparently, anything with the word "patriot" in the name). Now republicans are in office they will be too busy ignoring a different set of too-rich assholes.
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James Mixon
I agree with you all, I really believe if it was put on the ballot it will pass...Six states have laws on the book barring non believers, (so an ISIS believer will have a better chance ). So not believing in God is such a volatile political issue that a simple meeting with people who have ties to atheist group can expose a candidate to a brutal smear campaign. An Upstate Atheist, a charity organization in Spartanburg S.C. offered to lend a hand volunteering at a local soup kitchen, they were surprised to hear that the director of the facility would have rather resigned than work alongside godless members of the community.
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Half banana
It is interesting to watch the American political machine from the other side of the pond and observe the need for the president to say "God bless America".
The prime minister in the UK is far from being exulted as a demi-god and I think that is better for democracy. The issue of their atheism, religion or sexual orientation is not so important. However for a PM to say "God bless Britain" would be the kiss of death to his or her political career.
I think one thing which unwittingly fosters religious faith in the USA is the absence of a universal National Health scheme. It promotes the need for a large contingent of the less well off to demand a faith based safety net to compensate for the lack of the sense of well being which free access to socialised medicine provides.
Yes tax the religions and do grant them tax relief but only for their donations to external beneficiaries.
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Bugbear
In Sweden most of the parties claims to be “non religious”, this is but one. The one that claims to be founded on “Christian base”… have less than 3% of the voters. In fact It looks like most of the higher ranked Politian’s are scared of saying that they have some sort of a religious mind or idea. There are examples that ministers and other “high ranked” Politian’s have been found to go to mosques and other Muslim (not extreme) organizations, just to win votes from the more 750.000 Muslims that live in our country. They have been removed from their positions by their parties. This is how it is to live in an extreme secular state. If you search for a job in Sweden, do not ever mention that you are member of a church, specially JW,s….This contrary to what the WBTS tells us on assemblies.
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kpop
Full disclosure: I'm an atheist.
With that said, religion plays a very important role in keeping the masses in check. I don't agree with Karl Marx on most things but he was correct when he said, "religion is the opium of the people." Not everyone can deal with the full consequences of not having a "God" to save you or the threat of heaven or hell to give you reason to be "good."
A lot of religious people say to me, "if you are an atheist, you have no reason to be good & where do you get your morals from?" I don't think I need to say anything further, see above.
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James Mixon
Someone need to read the constitution, there is no separation of church and state in the U.S....