Should Uncle Sam Tax Churches?

Majority of this countries fore fathers were against organized religion.

The fore fathers of this country committed genocide in order to acquire said country.

Manifest destiny had nothing to do with god and everything to do with land/profit

This country was founded on the laws of white bigots.
 
You should join reality sir.

Separation of church and state? No such thing exists today.

Bill of rights? No such things exists today.

GREEDY CHURCHES TAKING A LARGE AMOUNT OF AMERICAN MONEY AND KEEPING IT. Such things exist today.
 
yeah those poor poor churches. Wtf OP you realize that they blew all their money on their fucking castles so now they have no meny to "help" the community. lawl

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I know. I just think that there should be a general law in the U.S. that says if you own a castle you should pay taxes.
 
its funny because all of that was probably through donations and out of the communities wanting it there, either way for places like notre dame and those awesome churches in new york, the city wants them their for tourism.
 
Every Church in America does NOT look like that. People donate to their Church so that they can have nice, beautiful buildings. I know people from one of my friend's Church who fundraised for years so that they could relocate their Church and pay for it to have a beautiful library and gymnasium, so that people can go there and have fun for free, and that special community enrichment programs can be run directly out of it.Its not like these Churches are big corporations that print money, I know my Church is trying to rebuild and relocate and that its getting all of its funding from its parishioners.

 
If you're going to tax churches you better be ready to tax planned parenthood, the Ford Foundation, and every single PIRG organization out there that do far more to influence politics than any church.

You can't say "oh tax these non-profits but not the ones we agree with!" or you're a hypocrite.
 
Don't think they should be taxed.

Also, I don't think that politics should be discussed or brought up in any form by somebody associated with the church during a service. And that they should not be allowed to give money to political parties. If they do that they then should be taxed.
 
putting the world into a state of constant warfare is kinda hard to balance out.

religious institutions should be taxed like anything else, rich people should quit their bitching and put up with more taxes, and drug tests should be mandatory for welfare
 
you honestly think that the world wouldn't be in a constant state of warfare without religion? There were wars long before there was an organized religious body. If it isn't about religion, then its about land, resources, power.
 
tax exemptions are a privilege, not a constitutional right. However if the church can actually prove that 100% of its donations went to charity or wasn't kept as a profit then yes it shouldn't pay taxes but I have never seen a church or any religious institution that has done that.
 
1) "churches" =/= "the church"

2) I don't follow much of the news about world events - it's been the same since my birth (politics, religious arguments, global power)

3) tell me something positive the church has done for humankind
 
Do you really think your so-called magical god. would of liked it that you spent all this money on a beautiful new building and not to help others.
 
Shouldn't that be the case with any charitable or non profit organization? No church I've ever gone to has ever done anything for profit. There have been times when giving and donations have exceeded expenditures, but then it goes to special projects, maybe overdue building maintenance, local and foreign charities, etc. no one is getting bonuses and its not going towards crazy extravagant purchases.
 
I thought I made that clear, I agree with you That are nonprofits places that only take Certain% of the money and donate it. Should also be taxed There's a reason why every nonprofit doesn't have a castle they work out of.
 
What a fantastic use of tax dollars. Spend money on trying to fix the country and get the economy back on track faster, not fucking around in space.
 
This is dumb only a small percentage of donating to the red cross goes to help people the majority goes to up keep just like the church.
 
Get the fuck out, I don't want to be enlightened, I'd rather live with the truth than strive for hidden meanings and mystical magics.
 
The vatican only has 4 billion in its bank which is nothing compared to the 1 billion catholics. That money isn't engough to pay half of the taxes in the us which is why the arch diosy of Boston had to sell a lot of their properties to pay for a 20 million sex scandal. Where is the money?
 
but really, do you really need to put people down who have a different viewpoint than you simply because they have come to a different conclussion than you? You act like you are so much more intelligent than other people simply because you are atheist/agnostic, and from your attitude I have a hard time believing that you are all that educated/intelligent.
 
I can almost 100% guarentee that neither of you are more "intelligent" than me by any normal measure (and I believe in God). In my field of study/work I am surrounded by atheists, but have their respect because they know that I have most of the facts about life and still believe that there is a God. I can understand thinking that people that are religious simply are lacking this vast knowledge base that you have acheived, but that really isn't the case.
 
I don't claim to be any more intelligent than anybody on here; intelligence is difficult to measure anyway. From your writing and previous posts, I doubt very much that your education has been of high quality.

You have a hard time believing that I am educated - good, I am not well educated either. I went through a school system with a pretty bad structure, and I am studying at an average European university.

You also ask if I need to put people down because they have a different viewpoint. No, I don't need to, but this is the internet and people act differently here. I probably wouldn't make fun of you for following a religion if I met you in real life, but the truth is, all religions were created by people. There have been people who follow religions, and there have been people who decide to find out for themselves.

I don't follow religions, simply because they have nothing to offer for me. I don't look for facts myself either, because I hardly have the means, but what I'm trying to portray is that everything which I live by is real and can be proven. People like to deny scientific evidence, but if you look hard enough, all of it is there. The fact that people have thought out their own stories and given certain objects or happenings a special meaning doesn't create any credibility. It creates something which a lot of people benefit from, but here is my question to you: in this day, why would you believe in a god, when it is so clear that god was simply used as a means to solve problems which could not be solved at the time of their appearance?
 
so was isac newton, copernicus or einstein stupid? solely because they believed in god? if so then you are stupid and should leave.
 
see that last question is where you are wrong. We DONT have everything all figured out, and anyone that claims that we do doesnt have a high enough understanding to see that. There are so many questions left to be answered out there, and I really dont see science answering them, thats where my faith comes in. I would argue that God is still an answer to some of these questions, just as he was thousands of years ago. Pretty much the way I read your post is that you use the internet to make immature posts because you are afraid to say them in person; partially because you realize that your reasoning would probably be embarrased by someone who is more educated and intelligent than you.
 
i don't know where you are getting this notion that all the money every church gets goes to the Vatican. that's not true so you are wrong, Its kind of like frats in college you have a national charter which you pay a fee my friends in alpha chi rho(SP?) and their national charter has 1,000,000's of dollars or so im told. but his house in binghamton has idk how much but i know its 1,000's of dollars they have made from party's. if every church pays there share you would have the money idk what the Vatican has to do with this.
 
false He was pantheist/deist with a God concept of the impersonal creative force that Baruch Spinoza put forth.

"I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science. [He was speaking of Quantum Mechanics and the breaking down of determinism.] My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance --but for us, not for God."

~ Albert Einstein, from Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press
 
The Vatican would be responsible to pay taxes if the diosy could not which is Likely since they are broke as well. Unlike the fraternity system churches are not charters.
 
I don't think he is saying that we have it all figured out, rather that we CAN figure it all out. If you consider all that humanity has discovered in the last couple of centuries I think it is perfectly reasonable that given enough time we would be able to explain the existence of the universe.

 
no they wouldn't and that would only be catholic churches if it was. also yes churches have their own money from its own members they pay it's the exact same thing.
 
possibly yes. Shit, who knows, maybe you guys are right and in 150 years we figure everything out. But at the end of the day what am I loosing by believing there is something more out there? I still think for myself, I am still doing everything I can to give back to the human race scientifically, and at the end of the day I will be happy as hell on my deathbed knowing that I've lived a pretty damn full life. I don't get this notion that people are missing out on things by being religious. But if I happen to be right, I will have lived this same full existance on earth and have an even better one in heaven. My faith also isn't rooted in organized religion, so don't pull the whole "but your beliefs are infringing on the rights of others", because I do everything I can for this to not be the case.
 
The church holds lots of land but does not hold a lot of money.(Boston arch diosy had to sell a lot of property to cover 20 million child abuse suit) so there are two options sell a lot of property or have it covered by the Vatican. Churches are not charters since charters rules are imposed by the charter not the main organization.
 
no you are wrong again because one church would not pay 20mill a year. they would find out what they would have to pay, and make a budget for it. each one would pay taxes separately and it will not be anywhere near 20,000,000 dollars each individual church has to pay.
 
Can you read? He said it was a law suit. He didn't say they pay 20,000,000 a year...

Why do you hate religion/church so much? Were you touched by a priest or something?
 
They would be spearated by state which is a diosy. The Boston arch diosy probably own 200 million worth of land which would amount to 10s of millions of dollars in taxes each year. The church could not sustain its self
 
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