-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.deism.com/tax_religions.htm
>>>This becomes even more relevant when even I can think of at least two religions
that make contributions to religious centres in foreign countries that have little or
no
interest in supporting or defending the Constitution of the U.S. [and may be, in
effect,
contributing to its demise]. I say let the Americans get their cut first. A<>E<>R <<<
}}}>Begin
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT! As you read the below article keep this fact in
mind. According to the tax appraiser's office for Pinellas County, Florida the dollar
amount of exempt real estate held by religions in Pinellas county alone is:
$583,581,970.00!!!
That half a billion dollars plus could be added to the tax base and used to help the
uninsured that the faith-healers can't heal, or to help clean up the environment, for
education, etc., etc., etc. Instead it goes to promote superstition.
SHOULD THE CHURCHES BE TAXED?
by Leland W. Ruble
Should organized religion be taxed? And if not, why not? For most of the population,
religion exists in a peculiar, rarefied atmosphere. It is for most people (even though
they may have some doubts) the only source of hope they have for continuing their
existence after the body has expired. Naturally they expect restitution in heaven, a
sort of reward for countless prayers; a moral life; and obedience to God. Obviously,
taxation of a faith based on a biblical God, would be a desecration of this image.
Religion therefore, has been able to develop, grow and prosper without the payment
of taxes that are required from most other organizations that teach a certain
philosophy or concept of existence. The majority do not think of religious mysticism
as an ideology that is taxable. They feel, you cannot tax a church whose reverend is
a representative of God. A person who has daily conversations and visions pertaining
to a sometimes benevolent, sometimes revengeful Lord of all, the Almighty.
Presumably because religion is more concerned with the afterlife, Heaven, Hell, and
a government presided over by an assembly of angels, saints, and evangelists, and
considers sin as the main cause of discord on this planet, it has been exempted from
taxation. It is a privilege that has granted religion an elite status that few other
organizations, activities, and the productivity of human labor is immune from. The
mystical exploitation of religion has created a hierarchy of sanctimonious
pedagogues who prosper in an environment free of obligation to the society from
which they profit immensely. There is no such thing as a non-profit religion. If there
were non-profit religions, most established religions would not exist.
Why then, is religion exempt from taxation? There are those who assume that it is to
prevent government influence into the activities of religion, and to prevent the same
from interfering
in the affairs of government. It is also thought that taxation of religion would
restrict
its growth, thus constricting the freedom of worship and making it difficult for
religious
activity to flourish. This does not make sense. If a mystical organization cannot
prosper or survive because of taxation, it must not have a message or purpose worth
sustaining, nor the ability to communicate a concept that appeals to the public. If it
requires exemption from taxation as the only way it can exist, then it is a religion
based on a superficial concept of Biblical nonsense that eventually the public will
ignore.
James Madison, the fourth President of the United States of America and a leading
promoter and authority of the U.S. Constitution, had this to say in regard to the
exemption of taxation for religious organizations: "Are the U.S. duly awake to the
tendency of the precedents they are establishing, in the multiplied incorporations of
religious congregations with the faculty of acquiring and holding property real as well
as personal...? The people of the U.S. owe their independence and their Liberty to
the wisdom of descrying in the minute of 3 pence on tea, the magnitude of the evil
comprised in the precedent. Let them exert the same wisdom, in watching against
every evil lurking under plausible disguises, and growing up from small beginnings."
Apparently not all future legislators or bureaucrats visualized the tenacity of
religion
to develop into huge corporations with vast properties, investments, and influence
over legislation favorable to its prosperity. The present has proven Madison correct in
his assumption. The scheming and manipulation of the frenzied, right wing religious
fundamentalists with their army of enthusiasts, has proven that religion untaxed, is
more dangerous to Liberty than taxation of the same. Why should an institution
founded on fantasy and myth, the incredible and improbable, be exonerated from
taxation while existing in a society that supports the infrastructure and services that
make it possible for that religion to succeed? My freedom, yours, and every other
individual that exists in this society, is threatened by the immense influence of
organized religion in its massive appeal to legislate laws favorable to its
establishment. We, unlike the religionists, do not as individuals, have the use of
untaxed funds or Christianized Coalitions that exist to peddle, distribute and exercise
leverage over politicians.
What is Democratic, what is justifiable in allowing the churches the extraordinary
freedom to exist independently exempt from taxation??? Especially when the
exempted religions pursue as their objective, the influence of legislation favorable to
their continued material advancement. The survival of organized revealed religion is
dependent on not only the generosity of its members, but also from a government
that is sympathetic to the continued domination of mystical authority in the affairs of
state and society. Witness George Bush receiving the blessing from his religious
minister for the carpet bombing and resulting mass murder of Iraqi civilians during
the Desert Storm exercise in ignorance.
The established religions have prospered in an environment that is maintained
through the taxation of others for such simple things as street upkeep, courts of law,
police and fire protection, or any of the many other services that the public pays
for. It
is we the people, who are assuring that religious associations can perform their
functions, while they are exempted from the same obligation. They have been
granted an exclusion, that is based on the erroneous concept, that religion is a non-
profit enterprise. Anyone who believes religion is not profitable and exists solely as
a
distributor of myth and magic, has not looked recently at the vast resources and
property that churches have acquired as non-profit organizations.
The religions of this nation do not contribute, in any way, to my freedom, your
Liberty,
or the future of civilization. Freed of taxation, indebted to the worship of an
abstract
biblical god, they exist exclusively as a hierarchy whose interest is the exploitation
and propaganda of supernatural absurdity!
IS IT NOT TIME THAT WE THE PUBLIC DEMAND THAT THE RELIGIONS OF
THIS NATION PAY FOR THEIR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIETY??? Is it not the
proper time to cease characterizing religious institutions as a privileged ideology
that
is more important than other philosophies and concepts?
Why should the labor of a person working eight hours a day be taxed, while a
preacher who labors in mystical fantasy be excluded from the same? Why should
there be a tax for the general public, but not for those engaged in the production (or
fabrication) of a religious ideology? Is the enterprise of corporate religion any
better
or more useful to society than an individual who thinks about existence from a
philosophical and rational perspective? I think not. There is no such thing as an
aristocracy of thought or complete agreement on any conception. Religion in all its
many forms, does not have the exclusive answers to the complexity of existence. Its
reliance on mystical incomprehension, the miraculous, the impossible, is based on a
fictionalized perspective, rooted in the dreams and desires of primitive man.
Taxation of religion is based on fairness and justice. It is a notification to those
who
represent corporate religion that they are not a special institution or a favored
aristocracy that can benefit from all the liberties of a democracy, but have no
obligation to support that democratic society in the form of taxation. Particularly
when, as the Christian Coalition is doing, they use the millions of dollars saved from
taxes to pump into the campaigns of politicians who agreed to spread their brand of
bigotry and superstition.
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