On Wed, 5 Nov 1997, Anonymous wrote: --- respond to jim.burnes@n-o-s-p-a-m.ssds.com --- (you know the drill)
Brandon Crosby wrote:
Should churches be tax exempt? Without their long history of helping people, I doubt they would have any benifits. However, even if their privillige was removed, they would simply be able to donate less money to community causes.
Churches, like governments, corporations, or any other organized entity, have some wonderful people in them, doing wonderful things. The problem, as always, is what our founding fathers realized--these types of organizations/structures tend to grow and attain power which is then used for the purpose of self-sustained growth (survival). Humanity tends to evolve, while organized humanity tends to de-volve. Biped humans, walking upright, form organizations which move toward becoming quadrapeds dragging large clubs.
Ha! This is pretty interesting. Rather than the typical cypherpunk approach of eliminating such inefficient and corrupting methods as income taxation and tax exemption we are playing by their game. The whole of HG Wells warning to society was that by systematically altering the language, you alter the things that can be discussed. The phrase "Tax exemption" is the newspeak form of "favored religious group that isn't currently being financially punished for speaking out against their masters". The unspoken assumption in the exempt/not-exempt argument is that you want federal income taxation for anyone. It also assumes there are "favored" groups vs. "unfavored" groups by the federal government. Of course this all flies directly in the face of limited constitutional government. So rather than bitch and moan about how the Churches are exempt, why not rejoice in the fact that at least the churches are free from taxation. We are part of the way there. Or start your own church. ;-) Jim jim.burnes@n-o-s-p-a-m.ssds.com (de-spamify if you wish to respond)