Problems with Christian Church

[Redbeard The Pink]

If churches want tax exempt status, they should be required to do a certain amount of secular charity work that benefits the public each year (fundraisers for church needs/projects don't count, and missionary work does not count).

The missionary work is a tough one because a lot of modern-day mission work is charity work that includes some sharing of Christian beliefs. Would you simply prohibit any sharing of beliefs in order to qualify for tax-exempt status? Historically, a lot of mission work has been very beneficial to other cultures. For example, William Carey's mission work in India helped end the practice of Sati, the burning of widows.

If you wanna yammer about Jesus while you're handing out trays at a soup kitchen or rebuilding disaster-damaged houses, be my guest. What I'm basically saying is that churches should be required to provide volunteer work and/or other kinds of material service to the general public if they want to be tax exempt. Providing Religious services to people who believe they are helpful is not a material service to the general public. If they want to use the same public services I do without having to pay taxes for them, they should be benefitting society (if not me directly) in some measurable fashion that affects people other than the members of their church. As for Sati, using religion to fight another religion is a very arguable form of the term "charity."