The Freedom from Religion Foundation is a 501(c)(3) group that is arguing the IRS is unlawfully favouring church groups. A federal judge has agreed
more on the suit from the FFRF site
Response to the ruling from The Christian Post
Really? because I don't see atheists or their organizations doing charity work....
Also, you do realize that the church is funded via donations???
Most atheists who embrace the religion of atheism are very immoral and selfish people....
the Foundation Beyond Belief issued a formal statement indicating that their offer to raise up to a half million dollars through the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life program was recently tabled when the American Cancer Society declined to allow the Foundation to create a national Relay team as other non-profits have done.
Another Religious Charity Turns Away Atheists » Dispatches from the Culture Wars
Even after the group said they wouldn’t wear the shirts, the kitchen still said no to their offer to help. So to their credit, the Upstate Atheists decided to take action on their own and are putting together care packages for the homeless people in that area and distributing those packages themselves.We asked the director… whether or not it would be permissible for us to wear t-shirts with our organization’s logo on them. She told us that we were not welcome to volunteer at the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen because they are a “place of God,” and she knew “our motivations.”
WOW! You aren't even making an attempt to refute what I posted. Don't you get it? YOU make a claim that religious organisations must pay property taxes, I point to a SCOTUS decision that says otherwise. YOU correct me by quoting California's law on property tax. I then paste in a paragraph from Texas legal code that says all the preacher man has to do is pray on the property and it becomes tax exempt. YOU then ask, "What's your point?" !!!
A fine example as to why some conversations go nowhere.
Don't know why you haven't heard about this problem. It has been around for a while
Basically there is a subset of Christians which demands exemption from taxes that other groups must pay while objecting to an IRS regulation that calls for political neutrality from groups receiving religion-based exemptions.
Easy solution -- pay your taxes and speak your mind.
Exactly. If they are political lobbies, then they can be classified the same way other political lobbies are.
I'm not exactly sure what "political lobbies" are. How about you and two of your buddies discussing politics at a coffee shop, reaching a conclusion on a candidate then recommending to someone in the next booth to vote for who your group thought best. At the same time, lets also say all three of you have been out of work for 18 months thanks to Obamacare and have very little income and owe no income tax. And because you are broke, you sleep at night on a city park bench.
Are you and your buddies a "political lobby"? Should you be allowed to vote because you paid no property tax and paid no income tax?
No, my and my buddies would each be individuals sharing our opinions with each other. If we wanted, we could fill out a lot of paper work to create a new legal entity for the purpose of lobbying or engaging in political action. Then, as the founding (and only) members of this new entity, we could hire ourselves to work for it, then we could go about raising funds as a PAC from which to pay ourselves while we work to promote our political beliefs.
The thing I keep seeing with right-wingers is that they don't know the difference between an individual and a collective or external legal entity, such as a state or a corporation or, in this case, a PAC.
Good answer, if that was the only possible way to create a "political lobby". And that's the thing I keep seeing about left wingers, they don't see anything outside the image they want the world to look like. Just as a reminder, people doing various types of "political lobbing" are not confined to a group as you have outlined. The press does political lobbying all the time, consumers as well, various segments of the private sector, and any other collection of people or business with any thought that may involve a politician. That's why I first said I wasn't sure exactly what it was you were talking about.
But if you in fact want all "political lobbies" treated the same, good luck. You will be stepping on a lot of toes you probably didn't think about.
Either way, right-wing churches are more political than religious. In fact, you could say that right-wing politics in the US has become a political religion. There's no reason to pretend that some of these organizations are churches, when they're actually just extensions of the Republican Party.
What qualifications do you posses to quantify that "right wing churches are more political than religious"? Do you attend such a church on a regular basis? Do you spend quite a bit of time with people that attend such a church? Or do you get your "facts" from some reporter with no or little use for religion?
If I had to take a guess where you got your info from, it would be some hit piece from the press or at least other leftists.
From talking to right-wingers who attend those churches. They're confusing nationalism and religion. I guess because both patriotic pride and religious ecstasy feel good, and to bitter people so does self-righteous anger, so they mix it all together to keep teh flock pretty well addicted to the sermons.
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