Religion has to be the greatest business in the world - even more lucrative than corporate raiding and leveraged buyouts.

What other business sells a product (salvation) for which the 'company' pays nothing - prices that product at 10% of all of its members income generating roughly 100% profit. To get that profit, the principals only work one day per week. AND THEN PAY NO TAXES on that profit.

Sign me up for that line of work.

Jwhitmill,

I'm an atheist, but I have no beef with what you describe.. However it is a humongous problem when churches go beyond the bounds of religious freedom, crossing the line to where they begin to force their religionintro others. I suspect if we studied the details we would not agree where to draw the line. Prayer in school for example is a major problem.. Freedom says parents are responsible for their child.. Commandeering the public school system to install prayer as though one size accommodates all is a call for fightIng (as an example of clearly crossing the line). Children voluntarily expressing themselves during breaks, lunch, before and after schoolLiz not a problem for atheists (and groups like AU.org). Hopefully in your case I'm preaching to the proverbial choir..

GLOBAL:

You gotta be kidding me.. It's the richest 1-percent who are literally stealing money from the 99-percent.. Theperple who actually earn the money be actually doing the work should have a bigger piece of the money pie.. You seem to advocate funneling too much of the pie to the 1-percent. And this hurts society, and it itdestroying oureconomy (bc people don't have money to spend, when it's on some fat cats overseas bank account).

Most of us are aware of who said, ““Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” [Mark 12:17] Whether or not the Constitution has exact language of separation of church and state, Christians are bound by the Bible to hold fast to that concept. It seems some of these so called Christian pastors haven't read that part of the Bible.

Consider: if every religion could place their beliefs and symbols in the halls of government, the building would cover the entire country, allowing in no sunshine, rain, or justice.

So many of our ancestors fled persecution from states in cahoots with the religious hierocracy of their time in Europe and the East. It amazes me that we so soon forget the “sins” of persecution through the many inquisitions of church/states. The people who wrote the American Constitution were very aware of the violence and terror that their mothers and fathers had fled in hopes of building a free country.

Some of the founders of the government of the United States of America were Christian. Some were not. Out of their diversity and vision they, together, drafted a document that has been a model for many states. The idea, that has been carried by those of us who seek to build on the highest ideals that we profess for this nation, is that we are the government and are responsible for the laws and policies that guide our daily governing, and as responsible citizens, we must not allow any religious pratice to promote or establish state religion.Telling congregations how to vote is promoting state religion.

The amendments of the Bill of Rights clarify the vision for freedom and responsibility so that power brokers cannot take our rights away. Our ability, to think all thoughts and choose our individual paths through life’s maze of dangers and opportunities, has made us strong.

As a reminder, the First Amendment states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. This great amendment should be understood clearly by every citizen, so that over time, every law of the land is measured by it.

And finally, because of the importance of this amendment for the establishment and maintenance of a free people, every phrase of it is under attack by the very power brokers it was intended to block.

Churches that preach political power and promote candidates, must forfeit their tax exemption. It is the law.

This is blatant disregard for the law as it pertains to separation of church and state and any church which participates in this should have their tax exempt status withdrawn by the I.R.S. But I highly doubt that any one church let alone the whole lot will have that done because they have too much clout in out governmenet.

If the people who work in these churches do not want to lose their jobs because the church is breaking the law then they should, as a congregation, call those leading this to back it down or lose their parisioners. If not, well it is your choice.

We, as taxpayers, are picking up the slack for what churches do not pay. It used to be that the church was where the poor went for help but today all the churches are interested in is collecting their regular collections plates and having their congregations have more kids to keep the paying numbers up - especially the Catholics. Germany has started withholding the sacraments from anyone who does not pay their expected amount - threats work so well.

Our country was established to get away from the Church of England and the forces within and tax exemptions should never have been allowed for donations to any church. I know many churches that use the funds to enrich their pastors with a lavish lifestyle, big cars and homes, trips while their parisioners are being foreclosed on and many are sleeping in shelters, etc. Total hypocricisy.

If anyone knows of any church that uses that day to politic, use your cell phone to record it and notify the I.R.S. requesting that that church's tax exempt status be withdrawn. Any citizen can make that request. Of course, there is no guarantee that it will be done but if enough people were to do this the I.R.S. would have to take action. Unfortunately, most churches do not think they should have to be responsible for any charity for the people - oh, yes for their "missions" in other countries that mostly do not even exist. Plus, keep the hell out of other countries businesses and trying to tell them how to live their lives and convert them. How they live is none of your business. Religions have been doing that in this country since the first to land on the shores - the poor Indians.

the other night i was going to watch some good old star trek but found myself surfing and stumbled on to a movie from like 1988. i found the timing of the airing to be odd as the once united now devided states becomes ever more devicive. a truly tragic story set in Mississippi 1964 about activisim in the south. THe sheer horror of the way people treated one another, the fear mongering and bullying and inevitiably murder. The FBI "did" finally fiind the bodies and convicted, "lightly", the killers but in looking at it? 1964? today? what happened in between such that we returning to 1964? Just food for thought folks. Let religion, or a singular special interest (its bad enough that its a corpratocracy) infiltrate the government? Bet your bottom dollar times wil get a whole lot worse before they get better!

Permit me to add a dissenting vote. This solution is a "baby with the bathwater" scenario. I agree that churches which engage in political activity on behalf of given candidates should lose their exemptions. I think the separation of church and state is important for both entities.

But I'm an employee of a church which does not participate in candidate support, nor will it. Were all churches to lose their exemptions, thousands of workers would lose their jobs - people who work long hours for mostly low wages ministering both to our members and our surrounding communities. At our best, we are a functioning part of the Commons. If someone needs food or gas, directions, help with a bill, money for transportation, etc., we don't stop and ask them what they believe or don't believe; we give them what they need. That's what we're about.

The loudmouthed rightwing church the media portrays is a cruel parody of Christianity; it's rightly condemned in this forum. But please don't make the mistake of thinking that's what all churches are about. Most of the churches I've served have eschewed politics and worked to take care of people who are hurting and in need.

time to tax the churches!!! booya!!! imagine if its bad now! what will it be like when the real religious wars begin. Welcome to the new American power struggle. kind of reminds of some 900 years ago, or maybe, just maybe of what goes on just on the other side of the globe today. 'tis odd inded, odd indeed...

Churches and religious organizations should have never been tax-exempt - not in this country.

RE: Romney, Taxes, et al...

Remember when Romney as compaigning for the primaries, and he was hanging out with unemployed people and said he was one of them? He didn't have a job right now?

And his tax return only showed a few million this year? Yep, that's what most of us are going through.

Totally agree. I also believe that the donations given to churchs should not be allowed as a charitable tax deduction when first of all, so very little of that money actually goes to charity, but even more so, if churchs use their money in politics. The U.S. tax code already does not allow political donations as a charitable deduction for individuals, why should the church be different? I totally agree churchs should be taxed like a business. See the 2 billion dollar City Creek Mall in Salt lake City, Utah as an example. (yes, $2 Billion, with a B) This should not be allowed. What's next? The way to end such a thing is to not allow church donations as a charitable tax deduction. Would Mitt Romney give $3 million to his church if he couldn't deduct it from his income taxes?

The republican party has pulled the democrats over to the right. So much so that a sitting democrat is not only ordering the assassination of american citizens (and other innocents) but now permitting the drone based surveillance of potentially every american.online dissertation help