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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 09/02/2008 : 08:54:16
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Well, well, well. According to this, found over at PZ's fractious, little merry-go-'round, on Sept. 28 a gaggle of preachers are going to defy the law and endorce candidates from the pulpit. The Pulpit Initiative
Reclaiming pastors' constitutional right to speak Truth from the pulpit
On Sunday, September 28, 2008, we are seeking pastors who will preach from the pulpit a sermon that addresses the candidates for government office in light of the truth of Scripture. The sermon is intended to challenge the Internal Revenue Code's restrictions by specifically opposing candidates for office that do not align themselves and their positions with the Scriptural truth. By standing together and speaking with one voice, it is our hope to recapture the rightful place of pastors and churches in American life.
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I agree entirely, they should be able to speak out, and then they can damned well pay taxes, just like the rest of us.
PZ, in his brief post, links this: Politics from the pulpit
California's arid Central Valley is awash in religious right-wing radio. During trips down to visit the family farm, I sometimes wander the AM band, marveling at the alternative universe into which I've fallen. (No wonder so much of my family is steeped in this conservative cant.) Earlier this month I stumbled across the mundanely named Issues in Education. The hosts are Bob and Geri Boyd, a fervent Christian couple whose guest was fiction writer David Barton.
Barton would disagree with that description, of course. He fancies himself a historian, working diligently to restore the supposed truth of America's profoundly Christian origins. (Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would be so surprised.) The Boyds announced that the title of the program was Vital Election Issues, part 2. (You can find it—and the expected part 1—on the Program Log page of their website.) |
I have long been a advocate of taxing the churches just like any other business, according to their means: some tiny snake-handling congregation in the mountanis getting off free and the larger corporations (that's what they are: business corporations) such as Ham's nonsense paying accordingly.
Oh yeah, Churchy, bring it!  You really don't know when you're well off, do you?
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2008 : 09:22:06 [Permalink]
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Yeah; some churches in the US are run exactly like businesses. It does make a lot of sense to me to tax them as such.
Not to mention that the closing this loophole would also be a way to hit the cultist movement like scientology.
It would probably prove costly, though, from a political point of view. So, the best way to tackled that would be just after the elections (so that tempers have time to calm down before the next vote) and to make sure and public to attribute the extra money collected to 'charitable' causes, at least for the first few years (upgrading Walter Reed would work).
Even then, you can pretty much count that the Religious right will never forgive you and will forever be going after your head. But that is not such a significant loss for the Democrats. These people are pretty much all voting Republicans anyway. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2008 : 11:58:51 [Permalink]
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Filthy.....
Yeah, if that movement took root and grew, we could get the issue to SCOTUS pretty quickly - tax immunity for the collection plate while political propaganda comes from the pulpit?
I would be fascinated by how Scalia would spin this constitutional issue into a "strict constructionist" opinion of how churches should be allowed to become political activist advocates. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 09/02/2008 : 12:16:15 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by bngbuck
Filthy.....
Yeah, if that movement took root and grew, we could get the issue to SCOTUS pretty quickly - tax immunity for the collection plate while political propaganda comes from the pulpit?
I would be fascinated by how Scalia would spin this constitutional issue into a "strict constructionist" opinion of how churches should be allowed to become political activist advocates.
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The various churchs have a long & sordid history of this sort of thing. It is yet another grasp toward increasing their power over society as they march like ants to a sugar cube at a demented picnic of total theocracy.
Scalia, Thomas, Whitebread Roberts, et al. would simply trash the Constitution with never a second thought, which the is the #1 reason why McCain must not win the election.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2008 : 12:43:16 [Permalink]
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And they keep niggling & picking at it, for example: The Naz with a hard on! An art gallery is facing a trial at crown court over claims it displayed an indecent statue of Jesus Christ.
The artwork was part of an exhibition at Gateshead's Baltic Centre featuring several plaster figures with erections.
A private prosecution is being brought by Christian group member Emily Mapfuwa, 40, of Essex, on the grounds the statue outraged public decency.
The gallery elected to have the case sent to a higher court from Gateshead Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
The statue was part of Baltic's September 2007 to January 2008 exhibition by controversial Chinese-born artist Terence Koh, "Gone, Yet Still".
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I really don't give a rat's ass about Christian sensibilities, nor their Muslim counterparts for that matter. If they don't like it, fuck 'em, they don't have to look at it just as I don't have to look at creation "museums" or other such folderol.
But the good part is that they are defeating their purpose. By making a stink about it, more will want to see it. I remind: Piss Christ.
Found it at the usual.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Bring it, Churchy!
