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.
If you’ve ever been on a church finance committee you will know that like other nonprofits, a large percentage of the church’s income comes in the last week of the year. That’s because people are figuring out what they made and what they are able to make as charitable deductions. So the tax-deductible nature is a large part of the church’s income.
Welcome to The Mark of a beast folks.
If you do not think and act the way the Beast demands - you cannot make a living, buy or sell or have any kind of tax exempt status.
The Sexual Deviancy NAZIS are on a roll. Americans love ‘em!
This will wipe out most smaller congregations and drive them underground into members homes. In the churches that survive, hate speech laws will have gays to monitor every sermon and bible study. As far as speech and assembly protections, they’re gone in areas challenged and policed. Hate speech regulations are very near.
This will expand to the Internet and spread beyond gay issues.
maybe they think people will stop giving , LOL, Oh , Obama used the Churches when he imported Obama’s Illegal Children and suckered the Churches to take care of them ,now he’ll screw them ,the Churches that is
That is the only “Mark of the Beast” that makes sense to me.
It’s not SSN, a barcode a computer or a microchip.
Yours is the correct response. A marriage recognized by the government is done at the courthouse. A marriage recognized by God is done at church.
You silly people, the mark of the Beast is going to be a derivative of today’s FICO score.
This happened at Bisbee Baptist Church, Mansfield Texas.
That graffiti-er is lucky he didn’t get caught.
I’m guessing it was most likely done at night.
In Texas, any trespassers damaging property at night can get shot by the property owner.
Really? Silo? Where grain is stored or where missiles stand ready to launch? how is that germane to the subject?
Churches would be better off ridding themselves from the yoke of Federal tax exempt... go as a charitable non profit organization... extremely difficult to take away as it covers a huge class of organizations
Remove the leverage the Federal Government has under Religious exemption. This would not take away the right to have to not have to provide abortion coverage or abortion med or birth control meds to employees - that is a Religious Conviction of the business owner.
I believe as organized under not for profit charities Churches would find that they pay no taxes. If a church can only exist as being completely tax free then maybe they had better check what is going on with their finances.
All FR members and ALL Churches should think seriously about campaigning to remove their states requirement for marriage practitioner, people could get married in the church in the eyes of God. And do away with marriage licensing totally — make it an after the fact contract registration via on line registration and the use of DIY Do It Yourself computer kiosk in the county clerks office — REMOVE ALL Clergy and ALL County, City and State workers from the line of fire for lawsuits ... Get government out of the marriage business totally. Couples can simply have their lawyer witness a marriage registration - After the Fact on a computerized on line form...
Let the bastards do it themselves - remove their ability to harass churches and religious people or anyone for that matter
No Church should ever have signed up for Non Profit status. They are tax exempt due to the First Amendment. As soon as they register as a 501-3C or whatever, they become government regulated entities. They have foregone their status as Religion. The Churches really need to dump their “non-profit” registrations post haste, all of them, or at least the onew who are not already rushing to kowtow to the new and coming government rules. Churches will use all of their assets defending lawsuits in the coming years, even if they ultimately win them. Soros and all the instant billionaire activists from Silicon Valley have enough money to pursue them in court until they go broke.
Mosques will prove to be untouchable. Orthodox synagogues are also open to attack.
You can opine that with the kind of government we have now?
The power to tax is the power to control, the power to destroy if desired.
If you stick right to the Bible, particularly on controversial subjects, that’s got to to kick it to the translation. If you use King James or something similar that puts it well beyond any civil statute of limitations.
If they make up some new law to censor reading materials our problems are far bigger than worrying about tax exemptions.
Ok. Turnabout is fairplay:
No adoptions to gay male couples without administration of a penile plethysmograph to test for pedophile tendencies.
Demand dismantlement of all NAMBLA chapters. Publish the names of all members.
No gay scout leaders without a straight scout leader present too.
No humanitarian assistance / aid to homosexuals
Unitarian / homosexual churches must pay taxes just as straight churches are required to
Local taxing entities would probably leave them as tax free and a good accountant can make the books come out at a loss for federal taxes.
The punk queers do not know what they have started.
Actually, the first amendment guarantees that the government will not establish any law for or against any church, including tax law.
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