Posted on 03/20/2009 8:01:01 AM PDT by sitetest
From California to Maine, Catholic bishops are increasingly taking on public roles on behalf of what LGBT activists call a "politicized" U.S. Catholic Church. Aiding the faith leaders in their campaign against same-sex marriage is the Knights of Columbus, a tax-exempt fraternal beneficiary society known as the church's "strong right arm."
And nowhere is the full impact of the Knights of Columbus' efforts felt than in the fight against awarding same-sex couples marriage rights.
~ snip ~
A key component of the Catholic Church's strategy has been the Knights of Columbus.
Obscure Catholic group
On its Web site the group proclaims itself as "the strong right arm of the Catholic Church."
To LGBT activist Jerry Sloan, the group is "an obscure and uniquely tax-exempt insurance company acting under the guise of a fraternal order."
Classified by a 19th century IRS code as a 501(c)8, the fraternal beneficiary society is able to operate as a tax-exempt organization providing "$70 billion in force" worth of life insurance to its members, according to Patrick Korten, vice president of communications and past grand knight of the organization.
According to the IRS Web site, a 501(c)8 is unlike other 501(c) nonprofit organizations. It is not required to abide by the non-discrimination clause required by Congress for other nonprofits.
Rather, one IRS qualifier for the tax-exempt code states, "membership must be limited." Like the priesthood, the Knights of Columbus membership is restricted to Catholic men. Among those men are "almost every, if not all, bishops and most priests," explained Korten.
(Excerpt) Read more at ebar.com ...
The Knights of Columbus is an “obscure group?” LOL!
Hilarious!
Hey, I’m a part of an “obscure Catholic group” with over 1.7 million members, over a million of them in the United States, with over 12,000 local Councils, who provide services and charity to millions of folks every year, who give millions upon millions of dollars and hundreds of millions of hours of service every year to every imaginable good cause of which one could think!!
ROTFLMAO!!
Grand Knight S/K sitetest, PGK
Seems like one of their biggest gripes is that it is tax exempt but involved in politics. And how many leftist attack wings are tax exempt and no one says anything?
I’m lovin’ it!! ROTFLMAO!!
LGBT is in their weekly attack against the church and anyone that does not cow-tow to their radical agenda.
Right on schedule.
Ping for an “obscure Catholic group”!!
No Jerry, Opus Dei is the "obscure" organization, remember? The KoC organize the fish fries during Lent.
Let me just make a note of that name.....J-e-r-r-y S-l-o-a-n. I must remember to give Silas a call. I think we may need to pay Jerry a visit and show him the real meaning of "obscure".
Hey, maybe we Knights have figured out the secret to it all.
I especially loved that the article basically says that we're an insurance company that has a fraternal association attached.
Half our members don't have a penny of Knights insurance, and we don't spend much time talking or thinking about insurance.
We do, however, spend lots of time cooking and serving the parish breakfast, working the bull & oyster roast, working the Oktoberfest, holding the kid's Halloween Party, providing dinner for the Vacation Bible School, giving out scholarships to Catholic kids and families, collecting Tootsie Roll money for the developmentally disabled, providing millions and millions of dollars to help rebuild after Katrina, working our own fundraising events so that we can perform countless works of charity, giving money to local food banks, giving money to local crisis pregnancy centers, giving money to the Special Olympics, giving money to the Leukemia Fund, raising money for children's hospitals, donating money to help refurbish cathedrals, providing scholarships to folks going to Catholic colleges and universities, providing college scholarships to EVERY SURVIVING CHILD OF EVERY FIRST RESPONDER WHO DIED ON 9/11, supporting Catholic seminarians, sponsoring youth sporting events, going bowling.
To name a few of the things that we do other than talk about and sell insurance.
S/K sitetest, GK, PGK
Hey, our Knights of Columbus Council had a fish fry during Lent this year! We had over a hundred folks turn out! The fish was great!
sitetest
Unfortunately, this is serious since the obscure extreme left-wing homosexual activist groups named in this article will find a sympathetic ear in the Speaker of the House to outlaw “19th century IRS code ... 501(c)8 ...”
the homosexuals have this wrong.
non-profits ARE ALLOWED TO BE POLITICAL ON ISSUES! (just not specific named candidates)
A priest can stand up and say, VOTE NO ON 8
We're not the only folks to use that section of the IRS code.
But just taking on the Knights of Columbus would be a politically-difficult task. A lot of folks are Knights, are related to Knights, know and like Knights, have received some benefit from the Knights, have seen others they love receive some benefit from the Knights, or have been bought a beer by a Knight.
If the leftist pigs want to stick their hands in a real, live hornet's nest, they could do worse than to attack the Knights of Columbus.
It would, however, likely drive up our membership recruiting! ;-)
sitetest
in the fight against awarding same-sex couples marriage rights.
scusie????
Its not an award...its not a “prize”.
Azzh-les.....
what a load, the author did not research. The 501(c)8 was replaced by the 501(c)10 which is the same thing. The author is bias to try and show the Knights are “out dated” and not enlighted to welcome homosexuals.
Second the non-discrimination DOES NOT APPLY TO BEHAVIOR. The author must be a homosexual trying to push the “orientation” rather than “preference” meme.
By the way, the Knights of Columbus, if I recall correctly, is not principally a non-profit organization, but rather a not-for-profit organization.
If you donate money directly to the Knights of Columbus, that isn’t tax-deductible. The Order, however, maintains a legally-separate corporation for charitable purposes, and donations to that are tax-deductible.
There was no IRS code in the 19th century.
Our Knights had a salmon and chicken dinner on a Saturday night to raise money for further improvements — 125 enjoyed the meal. In addition, we had homeless families that week from Interfaith Hospitality Network. They were served the same dinner, pro bono from the Knights.
The Knights do good work. Thanks to all of you.
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