I've been noticing a disturbing trend on the internet lately of people demanding that churches lose their tax exempt status for one reason or another. I've also seen people demanding that all churches lose their tax exempt status saying that the IRS should simply revoke the status. There is one big problem with this demand.
Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. Note
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
The way I understand this amendment, the very first amendment in the bill of rights, churches are exempt from ANY taxes simply because Congress can't make any law that could affect the freedom of a religion. All churches, regardless of what they preach. I remember learning about this amendment in school and my teacher telling us that governments have used excessive taxation to control and even destroy religions. So to keep our government from having the power to do anything of the sort here and protect religious freedom, Congress was barred from having any power over them. Any thoughts?
Sounds to me somebody is mad that they cant force the church to follow popular opinion by threatening to charge them extra taxes or withdraw government support. That's why BYU schools don't take any government money.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard anything of the sort lately, but i don't frequent blogs.