210 Comments

TAX THE FUCKING CHURCHES.!!!

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Conservative Christians are the first people to claim they're being persecuted any time they're prevented from forcing their views on others. They are also the people most likely to persecute others if given the chance. If you want to see what genuine persecution looks like, . . . hand power to the preachers.

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Following the law is for the little people. Besides, if Jesus wanted his followers to obey civil authority, he would have said…… Never mind.

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A dishonest christian? Someone help me find my smelling salts.

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Why is Beard running for a seat on the city council when his scripture tells him to set his sights on things above and not earthly things.

He's a pastor, damn it. He's supposed to know this stuff.

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Would his use of his own pulpit to endorse his own campaign not also constitute some form of election fraud? He's effectively using his church's operating budget as a campaign fund, and there have 𝘨𝘰𝘵 to be at least a couple serious campaign finance violations in the mix somewhere.

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"the churches did not know they weren’t allowed to donate to him"

One stupid idea, make the churches who want a non profit status sign a document stating they know the meaning of "non endorsement". They will still claim persecution but they won't be able to say they didn't know.

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founding
May 7, 2023·edited May 7, 2023

This is a combination of:

1. Christian Privilege. People who think that the law must protect only them and not constrain them.

2. Religious favoritism: Christian IRS staff and Christian politicians who let Christians get away with it.

3. Political cowardice: Politicians who know this is wrong but who don't want to be accused of "persecuting Christians, worshipping the devil, and being un-american atheists by their voters and their political rivals.

Which to me means this situation will not change until religion in the U.S. is so depleted by disinterest and attrition that the amount of lost tax money is negligible and the amount of campaign money donated is also negligible. Only then will the utterly ignored Johnson Amendment be quietly tossed out without much if any complaint because there just won't be very many churches.

How many generations will that take? Two? Three? Four? If the average generation is 25 years, that will be 50 to 100 years.

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We've seen this sort of thing many, many times both here and at previous iterations of FA. As a rule, putting a religious person into political office doesn't seem to go well, even if most of them could play by the rules.

When you come down to it, though, if he can't follow the rules now by not endorsing himself from his pulpit, what do you think would change if he gained office? Sure, okay, one check might be an accident, but three? (For the record, I suspect that if most of the congregation knew where the money was actually going, the collection plate would be empty, but that's a separate issue.) Handing out signs for the congregation to annoy their neighbors with is never going to look good, either. At this point I'm not surprised he's losing at the polls, seems to me he's pretty badly out of touch in any event.

Good luck to the people of Abilene, sounds like they might need it.

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I swear, Romans 13:1-5 is invisible to Christians.

Not that they obey any other scripture that's inconvenient to what they want.

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From NPR: "U.S. Rep. Keith Self, whose congressional district includes Collin County, tweeted: "We are devastated by the tragic news of the shootings that took place at the Allen Premium Outlets today. Our prayers are with the victims and their families and all law enforcement on the scene," Self wrote."

From Newsweek: "In an appearance on CNN, host Paula Reid asked Self for his response to criticism that "prayers aren't cutting it" when it comes to preventing gun violence. Self, whose district includes the site of the deadly shooting, replied: "Well, those are people that don't believe in an almighty God who, who has, who is absolutely in control of our lives. I'm a Christian. I believe that he is."

The blind (delusional) are leading the blind (delusional). It's a race to the bottom.

https://www.newsweek.com/texas-republican-prayers-not-enough-shootings-1798861

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Is it me, or does the IRS need to grow a pair here? Frankly, I am sick and tired of seeing incident after incident where churches endorse political candidates from the pulpit or support with money, though the bread was returned in this case, or take other actions which are in clear violation of their 501(c)(3) status.

I'm beginning to think that a letter-writing campaign, aimed at the director of the IRS, is in order to let him or her know that their failure to act has been noticed and that we strongly disapprove of their lack of enforcement of the rules governing the behavior of not-for-profit organizations.

I've got a Red Coat gig today, so I won't be doing that right away ... but after din-din tonight? Don't put it past me!

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And this is from the most gun friendly state in the US. Especially after what happened yesterday in Allen, TX.

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Churches are the original libertarians. They want to be absolutely, 100% free to do any damn thing they want TO anyone they choose to target. Lie, cheat, swindle, rape children, whatever the activity they choose to engage in, if you try to punish them or hold them accountable to any degree at all, you're violating their goddamned religious freedom. As libertarians they make even Ayn Rand look like a piker.

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OT: How Christians rip unsuspecting people off.

A Christian health nonprofit saddled thousands with debt, built pot farm, a bank, and an airline

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/7/2167331/-A-Christian-health-nonprofit-saddled-thousands-with-debt-built-pot-farm-a-bank-and-an-airline

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