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Topic: church vs state question (Read 1038 times) |
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Mermaid
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church vs state question
« on: 2008-12-24 11:33:56 » |
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i wonder if this has been addressed earlier here or elsewhere, but does anyone know why religious organisations deserve tax breaks? i mean..afterall, isnt it against the constitution? if it complies with constitutional rights, shouldnt atheist/personal belief organisations get a tax break too?
dont know if this is Mo's area, but is there a legit case for the supreme court here? if life was on tv, i bet boston legal's crack team would have won it..
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Hermit
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Re:church vs state question
« Reply #1 on: 2008-12-24 17:03:47 » |
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Basically any organization in the USA can, through limiting its activities and particularly who it purports to benefit, qualify as a non-profit, and contributions to that organization may then be tax deductible. Search Section 501 for more information.
It should be noted that any concession means that the cost of providing the concession falls on everyone, but Bush's faith based programs, which Obama has said he will continue, do the same. and raise the bar to any attempt to challenge benefiting the religious at the expense of the non-religious. In any case, I don't think this is even a fraction of the much larger benefits provided to religious (and educational) organizations in the form of property tax concessions and property law exclusions. This explains why much of New York belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, while much of Boston belongs to Universities and Colleges.
None of this is Federally mandated and fighting it would require tens of thousands of expensive cases, sure to be fiercely contested, in local jurisdictions and at least initially before local juries where immense public pressure could be raised by churches. I think there is a high likelihood that attempting to fight this, particularly if successfully, would be an invitation for a series of Constitutional amendments further benefiting religion as Americans see nothing strange about the idea of the US as a "Christian Country;" IMO all it would take would be a sufficiently visible "non-Christian" threat to make all the thousands of creeds work together.
So long that the US retains a prehumanist outlook on its social obligations, and the only relief to those at the lower end of society remains through state supported church run programs; this is unlikely to change. As the wheels come off the system due to the massive outflow of value and commitment of future income to the Banking system and failed production systems selling obsolete products leads to a long term depression, support is likely to become local or cease entirely. The reality is that when people's daily crust - and if they are lucky, some soup - is provided with a prayer, the US public is of the opinion that atheists (who they do not think of as ethical) can convert, become hypocrites and accept this "largess", or starve.
As a Christian said to me recently, if you think there is something wrong with this, why don't you just go somewhere else? The fact that atheists tend to be better educated, job creators is missed. The fact that no two atheists can agree on anything for long might come into the equation too.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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MoEnzyme
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Re:church vs state question
« Reply #2 on: 2010-04-28 20:24:45 » |
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In the US, so far churches basically operate through the same tax structures as any other non-profit organization. In the world of political campaigns it makes some difference, and I have some respect for some meta-religious groups like the Church of Satan who refuse to operate under such lies. I'm not sure how profitable their enterprises have been, but I think they are still around in any regard which I think has some optimistic implications for the survival of honesty in any case.
-Mo
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I will fight your gods for food,
Mo Enzyme
(consolidation of handles: Jake Sapiens; memelab; logicnazi; Loki; Every1Hz; and Shadow)
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