Gay tolerance
Posted on 07/12/2015 4:29:16 PM PDT by HomerBohn
In the weeks since the historic Supreme Court ruling that recognized same-sex marriage as a “fundamental right” many leftist commentators and LGBT activists have turned their sights on Christians.
From attacks on bakery owners who refused to bake cakes for same-sex weddings to daily attacks on all things Christianity, the hard left has made it clear that they are far from done with their “culture war” and will not be happy until anyone that disagrees with them is completely silenced.
Now, in what can be described as the opening silo in another round of the war on Christianity, LGBT activist and liberal journalist Felix Salmon has floated the idea of taking away the tax exempt status of any and all churches that do not support gay marriage.
Writing for Fusion, Salmon makes no bones over his belief that churches who do not support gay marriage should be attacked by the federal government through the removal of their tax exempt status. (emphasis mine) It’s difficult to see how the nationwide legalization of gay marriage could have any kind of significant negative repercussions for anybody who’s not gay. Difficult – but not impossible. Because now that the US government formally recognizes marriage equality as a fundamental right, it really shouldn’t skew the tax code so as to give millions of dollars in tax breaks to groups which remain steadfastly bigoted on the subject.
For all that the US Constitution mandates the separation of church and state, the two do overlap in quite a few areas. (Just look at your currency, with its slogan of “In God We Trust”.) One of those areas is taxation: the US government subsidizes churches to the tune of many billions of dollars per year by giving them tax-exempt status.
It’s important to note that the tax exemption for churches and other religious organizations is not embedded in the Constitution. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, but that’s free as in love, not free as in beer.
Taxation is a purely secular affair, and by default it applies to everybody equally, whether they’re a religious institution or not. It would be unconstitutional to single out religious institutions to make them pay more tax than anybody else, but the government has every right to stop giving them special tax-free privileges.
The same argument can and should be applied to gay marriage. If your organization does not support the right of gay men and women to marry, then the government should be very clear that you’re in the wrong. And it should certainly not bend over backwards to give you the privilege of tax exemption.
So there you have it, in the new free and equal America if your church does not support a certain political and religious belief they should be forced to effectively PAY the government a portion of their income and donations.
In his disgusting attack piece, Salmon also shows his backward beliefs on taxation itself by saying that the government is “rewarding” churches by not taking a portion of their money. In reality, the government is not rewarding a church by giving them tax exempt status, they are instead allowing them to not have part of their assets confiscated due to the fact that they are spreading the word of god rather than say making iPhones. Multiple comments posted beneath Salmon’s article spoke directly to this fact and highlighted the nonsense spewed throughout.
Candace Thatcher wrote, “The author conveys the typical liberal backwards view of taxation. In the author’s opinion, if a church is not taxed, then the government is “rewarding them”. News Flash people: Income or donations belong to the institution, and the act of taxation is government confiscation of a portion of those donations and earnings.”
Responding to a comment that attacked Thatcher’s take on taxes, David Lynch destroyed the liberal worldview on taxes and made clear the dangers we face as a free country if churches are specifically targeted by the government over their beliefs on marriage.
“So wrong it hurts. Letting people keep THEIR money is not a reward. It is their money to begin with and not the governments. Plus the Constitution disagrees with you and your view,” wrote Lynch.
“If we can tax a church then next we can tax the press and tax-free speech (speaking fees) and tax assembly. Once we go down that road all of those rights cease to exist. What happens to a Church that can’t afford to pay its taxes? It shuts down? And if the government has the power to shut down one church then it has the power to shut them all done. And it has the power to tax and shut down the press too.”
It is important to note that the Libertarian viewpoint on tax exemption says that there should be no tax exempt status for any organization but even that view doesn’t line up with specifically attacking Christian churches. Perhaps the most telling fact in all this that proves without a doubt that the hard left and their LGBT activist allies specifically and wholeheartedly HATE Christians is that they never mention the horrific treatment gays receive at the hands of other religions such as Islam.
In a tweet published after the mass purge of the Confederate Flag, Conservative commentator Todd Starnes warned of the attack on Christians soon to be carried out by LGBT activists and, of course, was roundly criticized as a fear monger and hateful bigot. Interestingly, Salmon led off his attack piece with the tweet in a roundabout way of acknowledging that yes, LGBT activists are indeed coming from Christians. Clearly, he was right.
Note: The call to remove Christian churches tax exempt status isn’t the ramblings of one authoritarian liberal, rather it is a belief held by the vast majority of LGBT activists and their hard left allies in the media.
Muslims don't have to worry. They'll never fear losing their tax-exempt status.
But yet these GAYSTAPO hypocrites want to be married in a church.
Maybe Churches should give up their tax exempt status,so the government has less control.How much money does the average Church make in a year?Not much I would bet.
Best thing that could happen IMHO.
Who (except for Catholics who foolishly voted twice for Obama) did NOT see this coming?
Gay tolerance
Go get 'em, gays!
its more about being anti-christ than about being pro-gay. Demanding church to marry gay couples is ridiculous. Thats like a meat eater demanding Vegetarian shop to sell meat or demanding any NGO to provide services that is against their mission
I’m not opposed to this, provided they remove the tax-exempt status from ALL non-profits.
The power to tax is the power to destroy and the gaystapo plans to use it as a weapon.
Stop stalling and light this fuse.
“How much money does the average Church make in a year?Not much I would bet.”
Two words: Property Tax.
That said a lot of churches could just move to rented facilities
Yeah they not going after Mosques
Maybe Act up people probably go after them I just want see Mosque reaction of Act up if they still around
What about those large contributions by those little old ladies and childless people who leave the family farm or all their worldly possessions to the church?
It’s the property taxes that would sink many
And the expected loss of donations but maybe not
Don’t know how many give to their church for a tax deduction
A Church should not "make" any money. If it has extra it should hang on to some for a rainy day, and should look to see what additional activities or organizations it could support.
So apparently separation of church and state is not the same as separation of state and church.
That’s only half the issue. None of the donations they get will be tax exempt.
Should be salvo, but it could be that source ill fitting words, autocorrect.
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