Churches and Taxes

It's strange, sometimes, the things that kick off a train of thought - or "train wreck" of thought, as K and I customarily refer to it.  Take, for example, the following exchange:

"Yeah, but you guys keep getting your Temple destroyed."

"That's how we learned God doesn't like Temples any more. See, we listen!"

God was THERE!

It's strange, sometimes, the things that kick off a train of thought - or "train wreck" of thought, as My Honey and I customarily refer to it.  Take, for example, the following exchange:

"Yeah, but you guys keep getting your Temple destroyed."

"That's how we learned God doesn't like Temples any more. See, we listen!"

This, as you might infer, is a snippet of dialogue from a work of fiction, between an agnostic and a Jew.  Taken in context, it is simply an attempt to inject a little dour humor into the fictional situation.  Taken out of context, we have somewhat more freedom to speculate on what it might mean - much the same way that nearly every would-be proselytizer, professing to be Christian, often does with Bible verses.  The difference is, we recognize what we are doing, where they apparently don't understand that they have done the same thing... but that's a whole other discussion. For the moment, let's just dissect the forgoing conversation snippet.

The meat of the exchange is that "God doesn't like Temples any more", or, to put my own spin on it, God isn't concerned with earthly, ostentatious displays of wealth and power, and most likely isn't going to step in and protect them from the depredations of "unbelievers".  To do so might require regular, periodic interference in human affairs, of nearly the same order of magnitude as the recorded miracles of the Old Testament, or the birth, life, and sacrifice of Jesus.  Although I won't claim to know what the number is, I suspect that there is a reason that you can probably count all of His direct, physical interventions, as recorded in the Holy Bible, on your fingers - maybe you might have to include a few toes, too - and I'm going to guess that it has something to do with free-will and faith.  Again, that's another discussion.

Anyway, the practice of building huge, expensive edifices to advertise one's piety has never set well with me.  My earliest memories of church services, and the ones which brought me closest to God, are of a few dozen people in a tent, on a borrowed piece of land.  There was no cathedral, no pastor's quarters, no paved parking, no official, designated, organized choir.  Often the tent was rented.  Somehow the minister had obtained a trunk full of songbooks, and if you were lucky, they were all from the same publisher.  There was sometimes a portable, pedal-driven organ, but often the only music there was that which came from the mouths and hearts of the congregation.  But, in engineering terms, the conditions were necessary and sufficient - GOD WAS THERE!  And the tragedy is, that for most of the worship services I've attended, in more permanent facilities, I can't say that.

Many churches these days seem to have less to do with spreading God's word than with increasing the wealth and influence of Churches, and often, the alleged clergy.  They claim every growth in membership as an increase in the number of "saved", forgetting that most of those increases come via the loss of members from another congregation.  

People are more mobile now than ever before.  I've been a born-again Christian since the age of five, but I've traveled a lot over my 62 years.  As a result, I've joined new congregations periodically, and each and every time I did, some self-righteous twit claimed my joining as a "new soul for God", while gleefully rubbing his hands together in anticipation of an increase in Church income for the "building fund".  God had my soul already.  He really didn't care that the congregation before which I professed my faith was Baptist.  He would have been just as satisfied if it had been Methodist, or Lutheran, or (shudder) Catholic!  He certainly didn't care whether it was in a tent or in a brick-and-mortar building!

Only ONE temple was ever authorized by God, and it now lies in ruin beneath Islam's "Dome of the Rock".  I can only believe that if God had felt that the temple was necessary, it would still be standing - in all of the glory that it had when Solomon finished its construction.  Remember how Jesus drove the merchants and money-changers out of the temple?  That was prima facie evidence that God wasn't happy with how it was being used!  But people don't learn easily, and thus the temple was desecrated again and again.  Is it any wonder that He withdrew his protection?

The fact is, God's real temple on earth is in the heart of each true believer.  He lived there before there were congregations, before there were tents, and certainly before there were buildings of wood, stone, brick, concrete, or glass!  He still lives there, and He doesn't need our pitiful attempts to impress others with ostentatious structures - they were never really for His benefit anyway.

In the earliest days of Christianity, believers met irregularly, in the homes of individuals, sometimes bringing in outsiders who wished to know more about this "new" faith.  There were a lot of reasons for this, not the least of which was the protection of the worshipers themselves, but the fact is, that GOD WAS THERE, at each and every meeting. A typical worship service was conducted on "the first day of the week" (Sunday)  because it didn't interfere with the Sabbath, which ran from twilight on Friday evening to twilight on Saturday.  Think about this: God's injunction to "remember the Sabbath and keep it holy" was never rescinded!

The actual "service" itself, according to the descriptions in the New Testament, consisted of prayer, after which the congregants dispersed to other places - street corners, if you will - to preach the Good News of Christ's coming, sacrifice, and resurrection. THEY DIDN'T DO IT IN A TEMPLE!  It is most likely that the only variation on this kind of agenda occurred when a deacon received a letter from an apostle or another congregation, and shared the content of that letter with his or her own congregation (Yes! They had female deacons!).  This probably happened before the final prayer of the worship service.  Again, THEY DIDN'T NEED A TEMPLE!  Are you getting the recurring theme here?

The modern Church's obsession with building impressive structures has led, inevitably, to the Church , as an organization, being more about real estate than it is about salvation.  Congregations of various denominations have used the historic tax-free status of religious institutions to garner possession and control of real estate well beyond any practical need for such, and have thus, in my mind, become commercial ventures NOT DESERVING OF TAX EXEMPT STATUS! 

So, where does all this leave us?  Simple:  God doesn't need fixed, physical temples, so there is no merit in the position that a church needs them.  If the church needs a place to meet, God will provide!  It may be the home of a congregant or friend, or it may be a tent and a plot of land lent by a farmer.  It would be sufficient.  The mission of the Church is to worship God and spread the Gospel. 

It isn't the mission of the Church to educate children in earthly matters, so parochial schools don't need and shouldn't get any special considerations - especially since exemption from taxes robs the public treasury of funds for the support of public schools.  Most of the reasons those schools don't founder anyway, is that the students' parents don't want them "contaminated" by exposure to teachers and other students from outside their congregation. They don't want their kids learn about "heresies" like math, science, and actually exhibiting the kinds of behaviors that Jesus commanded.

One of the traditional functions of the Church is to provide social services for the poor - the only real excuse for the income tax exemption.  For many congregations, this has largely gone by the wayside, as the burden has shifted more and more to the public tax rolls.  

 I could go on, but I think the point has been made - as the Church has become ever less about God and the Gospel, and ever more about wealth, real estate, and power and influence over the secular world, it has largely abdicated any real excuse for special treatment.  If the Church wants to own land and buildings, it should have to pay ad valorem taxes on the land and buildings like any other entity.  If they don't want to pay those taxes, they don't need to own property, and God will provide them a place to worship - assuming that they worship in the way that he wants.  My own feeling is that the church shouldn't own real estate at all.  I'd like to see TRUE worship, like I saw in those tent meetings when I was a child.

Recently a friend of mine forwarded to me a funny bit of spam.  It told a (fictional) tale, in which a large church (2000 members) service was invaded by a couple of guys wearing SWAT gear and armed with machine guns.  The invaders announced that anybody who didn't want to take a bullet for Christ should immediately leave.  Of course, almost everybody did, leaving only about 20 people. When the dust settled, one of the guys said to the pastor, "OK preacher, go on with your service... I got rid of all the hypocrites!".  A funny story, but it also hurts a little, because it rings true - not many people would take a bullet for Christ.  The GOOD news is, we don't have to - he did it for us.

The point I want to make, however, is that if the object is to get rid of the hypocrites, one doesn't need to threaten them with certain death... just eliminate the professionally-directed, gowned choir, and they'll start to wonder if their offerings (which they equate with an entertainment fee) are being well-spent. Take away the climate-controlled, surround-sound, padded-seat comfort of the modern church, and they'll stay away in droves!  The truly devout will attend anyway. How to do this?  Make every cent of income received by non-profit organizations, that is not disbursed either for true charitable work or salary expense, taxable, and if such an expense is claimed, require proof!  Salaries themselves are already taxable as individual income.  Eliminate the ad valorem tax exemption for all such organizations as well.  Finally, specifically include churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and any other form of religious organization in the list of entities which are expected to pay taxes on income and real property.

A final point:  some will complain that these actions would violate the First Amendment.  Simply put, such complaints are a load of crap! The First Amendment reads as follows:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

The imposition of income and ad valorem taxes on all entities residing within our country in no way affects the establishment of religion or the exercise thereof.  Refraining from taxing those entities by law, smacks of preferential treatment of one or more religions, and that does violate the intent of the First Amendment! Put another way, the oft-misquoted "separation of church and state" prohibits Congress from creating an official State religion, but has nothing to do with whether any entity within our borders is subject to taxation!  

 Peace. 

Living Well

Warning!  The following post is different from the vast majority of my postings.  It is unabashed proselytism! If you can't accept - or at least tolerate - it, you need to find something else to read!

Let's Talk About Taxes...

It amazes me, sometimes, how many of those who have opinions on taxation don't have a clue how governments have to operate. A government is basically a service agency: that is, it exists to provide one or more services to a defined set of clients.

Yet Another Change in Direction...

Up until now, I've limited the content of my posts to my observations and opinions on facets of our lives and world.  There has been near zero feedback concerning those posts, either positive or negative.  Since I'm not getting any dialog by just expressing opinions, I've decided to change my approach for future posts to this blog.

In any given future post, I'll be describing how I would apply that power to make changes in our society, our world, and ourselves.  You are invited to read and comment.  I don't expect everyone, or really anyone, to agree with me on every issue, but I do expect that anyone who comments on my post will exercise both their brain and good manners.  Anyone who can't (or won't) do both will be ignored, and their posts will be deleted.

Be advised that this policy doesn't proscribe your right to free speech.  Blogspot is (currently) free, and you can post whatever you want - within the limits of the service agreement - on your own blog,  I, on the other hand, don't have to put up with senseless blathering, or flames, or any other form of bad manners on my blog, and I choose against such.

I  suspect that some of you will find what I say to be offensive, but that's the breaks.  Opinions are like unpopular body parts - everyone has them.  You are entitled to yours, and I'm entitled to mine - at least for now, in this country.  I can't prohibit you from thinking the way you want to, and you can't prohibit me, either.  What I can do, at least here, is to tell you how your life might be different...  if I were king.

Mariner

Daydreams

I daydream about waking up from a long, good night's sleep, in my sailboat's V-berth, cuddled up to my Honey.  In my dream, the morning is just cool enough to make such cuddling very comfortable.

When I finally give in to the need to get out of bed, I make coffee and take a cup out to the cockpit, where I sit and watch the world come to life, usually in a wide salt-marsh, bordered by low-growing trees.  The sun isn't yet over the horizon, but there's plenty of light, and a slight breeze offsets the humidity.  There are a profusion of species of birds, and perhaps an otter or even a dolphin (of the mammalian persuasion), hunting for breakfast around the boat - the smaller fish like to hide in its shadow.

My Honey is sulky about waking up ;), but eventually she drags herself - along with her own cup of coffee - out, to join my in my morning devotions.  As the sun breaks over the horizon, the miracle that is life on the water, in all its complexity and interdependence reveals itself.

I can't imagine feeling closer to God than that.

I dream of and long for moments like that, while I sit, 300-plus miles away from the ocean, watching my life slip away, waiting for others to finish what they need or want to do.

Mariner

Constitutional Protections

Sitting here ruminating about the sorry state of the nation again.  Sorry if that offends you, but it's the way it is.