(August 21, 2015 at 2:06 am)robvalue Wrote: I don't get the idea that religious businesses should be given tax exempt status in order to keep out of politics.
Doesn't cut it for me. The religious businesses should keep out of politics anyway. What other businesses have to be paid off in order to not explicitly preach against the government and try to get their own ideas made into law?
Giving specific "large enough" religions tax breaks amounts to the government sponsoring those religions, for no good reason, while refusing to do the same for very small ones.
As for charity work, the rules for tax exemption should be exactly the same. Are other charities allowed to overtly preach marketing messages with no relevance to the charity work they are providing?
Religion, as always, wants special treatment. I don't know if the tax exemption will ever be removed. Maybe one day, when religion has finally lost its hold. Right now, even the politicians who want it gone are probably aware of the mass shitstorm it would cause.
Churches don't have to pay taxes. It's biblical. But now we get the church workers whereas they also used to be exempt.
Ezra 7:24 ((ERV) = 24 I want you men to know that it is against the law to make the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, Temple servants, and other workers in God’s Temple pay taxes. They don’t have to pay taxes, money to honor the king, or any customs fees.
