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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: GAWD DAMN YOU CHRISTIANS! - It begins: Liberals and LGBT activists set their sights on Christian Churches in call to remove tax exempt status By Alex Thomas (INTELLIHUB) — 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. If you thought the cultural purge over the Confederate flag was breathtaking — wait until you see what LGBT activists do with Christians. — toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) June 26, 2015 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. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 15.
#14. To: HAPPY2BME-4UM, Lod, christine (#0)
"A great many of the church's problems today are a direct result of the church "taking" and actively pursuing a legal status that makes it inferior to, and a subordinate of, the civil government. The two most significant ways this occurs is by incorporation (state jurisdiction) and the tax-exempt 501c3 status (federal jurisdiction). Scripture simply does not support the notion that the church is an inferior institution to the State. Nor, for that matter, is the church a superior institution to the State. God has ordained both the church and the civil government as His "ministers." The church is the minister of grace, while the State is the minister of justice. Church and State are two distinct and independent spheres of authority (jurisdictions) ordained by God. However, no church can remain separate and distinct from the civil government when it incorporates and/or accepts 501c3 status. For legal purposes an incorporated 501c3 church has subordinated itself, by contract, to the civil government. For theological purposes, that church has made a covenant with the State, a covenant which Scripture in no way supports. What is the solution to the church's current messy state of affairs? It must cease operating as an underling of the State. The solution is for the church to legally operate as it once had in America (and we might add, quite successfully so). Rather than operating as "tax-exempt nonprofit religious corporations," churches once functioned as "free-churches." Just what exactly is a free- church? A free-church operates independent of, and is in no way subordinate to, the civil government."
Beautiful. Christians really need to put their mouth where their money is and divorce themselves from government chains. But with the latest USSC attacks on Christianity, it may well be too late for that. More ..
There are no replies to Comment # 15. End Trace Mode for Comment # 15.
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