Tax The Churches
Recent questions surrounding some of America’s top evangelists are barely news to me. I have been “preacher-watching” since the days of Jim and Tammy Baker’s reign of holiness on their show PTL way back in the ’80s. So the whole money, spending, scandal thing isn’t surprising at all. And neither is the fact that no one really does anything about it.
It does make me wonder, however, why don’t America’s churches have to pay taxes? They aren’t Amish… they don’t grow their own food and swear off cars. They use the roads and the schools and the fire department. They should contribute. Every church will tell you they worship a God who is a miracle-worker. Obviously. He has made Himself tax-exempt, even though He doesn’t need the money. But the church rakes in a lot of dough. What do they do with it? Well, that subject is rife with scandal and doubt. Let me just say, the preacher lives pretty well.
Imagine if Jesus came back on a Sunday morning, and found himself in some random church service. He probably wouldn’t get a very warm welcome. I would expect a lot of snickering and finger-pointing. He has a beard, and looks like he might be poor. Not a good candidate for the offering plate. Although all that money is technically HIS.
There really is no separation of church and state. Since the churches can’t legally endorse political candidates, they preach against the other guy. In the South, that is HUGE thing. No one is going to vote for some gay Satan worshiper. And they’ll decide if you are one based the way you feel about “moral” issues like abortion or gay marriage.* Issues like government corruption, taxes, health care… anything that requires actual work and compromise is not up for discussion. After all, it isn’t the church’s job to feed the poor.
But I digress. My point is, if you are going to “influence the voters” instead of “endorse a candidate,” fine, but changing the terminology isn’t enough. I know Republicans do it all the time, but some of them pay taxes!! And now that they have made our country into one big charity case, the preacher should be paying into the system like the rest of us.
* I don’t recall Jesus ever preaching in favor of discrimination or taking away someone’s right to exercise their free will.
