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Repeal the Johnson Amendment: Make Free Speech for Churches Great Again
American Thinker ^
| August 4, 2016
| John Steinreich
Posted on 08/04/2016 10:35:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Secret Agent Man
21
posted on
08/04/2016 11:17:22 AM PDT
by
Gamecock
(There is always one more idiot than you counted on.)
To: Petrosius
And so you would favor the government taking 40% of what the faithful give to the church? How about they reorganize as 501(c)(4) and say what they want, when they want, and still pay no federal income tax? The big difference would be donations from their congregants would not be tax-deductible.
22
posted on
08/04/2016 11:40:53 AM PDT
by
gdani
To: Kaslin
23
posted on
08/04/2016 11:41:35 AM PDT
by
\/\/ayne
(I regret that I have but one subscription cancellation notice to give to my local newspaper.)
To: Kaslin
Dropping their 501c(3) would kill off most churches. Property taxes alone would do it. It would also make financing new churches very dicey.
Churches work on very thin cash flow.
To: KittenClaws
Currently, every Church has two choices: 1. Accept the exemption and preach as the government decides by omitting how the politics of today relates to scripture and Christian living.
That is 100% false. Churches that want to maintain their special tax-exempt privilege are prohibited from campaigning for or against a particular candidate for political office, and from contributing to a candidate's campaign. However, churches are allowed to conduct voter education activities, including publishing voter education guides, that do not promote voting for or against a particular candidate. They can also hold voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives.
So there is a whole lot that churches can do and have been doing for decades to preach about political issues and how they relate to scripture, whether it be abortion, gay marriage, etc., and they can tell their parishioners that they should vote for or against politicians (not an individual candidate) based on their scriptural view.
25
posted on
08/04/2016 11:58:25 AM PDT
by
drjimmy
To: Taxman
26
posted on
08/04/2016 12:06:45 PM PDT
by
Taxman
((H. L. Mencken correctly observed: Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man.))
To: Red Badger
But neither if free speech absolute. Besides of the famous, “can’t shout fire in a crowded theater” example, the Johnson Amendment as applied to charities raises the question of whether charitable tax deductible contributions should be allowed to go for partisan causes. As a practical matter, I can guarantee you that the charitable sector is full of liberals who would love to engage in partisan activities.
But there is also a good argument to exempt religious organizations but not charitable ones, because freedom of religion is found in the Constitution, but charities are not.
To: KittenClaws
The fuss is the government forced the choice on us via one man, Johnson, because he wanted the church silenced from talking about his political record and aspirations. The fuss is that before this all churches were free to talk about whatever. Going back to the Founders days.
It is called iniquity. Gross injustice.
Tht is what the fuss is all about.
28
posted on
08/04/2016 12:45:29 PM PDT
by
Secret Agent Man
(Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
To: Petrosius
And so you would favor the government taking 40% of what the faithful give to the church?
***************
It’s an income tax ... it’s paid on profits not cashflow... It doesn’t take too much imagination to see a church have $0 in income after expenses...
29
posted on
08/04/2016 4:26:13 PM PDT
by
Neidermeyer
(Bill Clinton is a 5 star general in the WAR ON WOMEN and Hillary is his Goebbels.)
To: Kaslin; campaignPete R-CT; justiceseeker93; fieldmarshaldj; BillyBoy; AuH2ORepublican
Either repeal it, or start GD enforcing it against Black churches, they do nothing but shill for democrats.
30
posted on
08/04/2016 9:27:42 PM PDT
by
Impy
(Never Shillery)
To: gdani
With the shekels come the shackles. In this case, it's keeping your own shekels that bring the shackles.
Ain't gummint wonderful?
31
posted on
08/05/2016 11:40:13 AM PDT
by
thulldud
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