• mommykink@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Taxing religious organizations gives them official representation in government affairs which is just as bad, if not worse.

    • Fisk400@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Definitely not how that works. All companies are taxed and they don’t get any special representation outside lobbying that they were going to do either way and churches do in fact put a lot of the money they should have payed in taxes into lobbying.

          • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            No, but well-connected companies use regulatory capture to structure taxes as a burden on their competition.

            Consider for a moment how churches would be taxed. Maybe they are taxed on their assets. That would disproportionately affect larger churches with valuable real estate holdings, like the Catholic and Mormon churches. Maybe the donations they receive are taxed. That disadvantages newer churches which don’t have corporate investments or endowments. Tax land? Hurt cemeteries. Tax salaries? Favor Quaker meeting houses where there is no specific pastor.

            Look, I don’t think churches should be involved in politics. Any that donate to candidates or endorse a party should lose their tax exempt status, because they are no longer churches. But a blanket removal of all tax exemptions for religious organizations is a threat to religious freedom. It would allow the religious leaders in government to play favorites and pick winners, kind of like they do now already.

              • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Is that what I said?

                Tax code is applied by politicians. Do you really expect Christian Conservatives to fairly tax Muslims and Sikhs and Hindus at the same rates as their own churches? Freedom of Religion cannot exist when political leaders are able to tax competing religions into oblivion.

        • mateomaui@reddthat.com
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          11 months ago

          To some degree, agreed, but your original assertion is still wrong. Unless you count all the devoutly religious people in Congress, and they already have that representation.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      Not taxing them hasn’t kept their fingers out of the American government.

      Far from it.

      Hell, the current speaker is trying to convince everyone that the government was always intended to be based on religious dogma.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Please elaborate…

      Like, do you think McDonald’s as a corporation gets to vote?

      Do you think priests and preachers don’t get to vote now?