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896 Comments
- AbleX, on 02/10/2009, -63/+513I support that. I don't think ANY religion should be tax exempt. What makes them so special? Because they believe in an invisible friend they get to not pay taxes? ***** that.
- inactive, on 02/10/2009, -78/+511Dugg.
If they can petition to strip people of a basic human right, we can petition to strip them of their tax exempt status. - Krayzie_Bone, on 02/10/2009, -71/+329Dirty little secret is most of the black people that turned out to vote for Obama are against gay marrage and also voted it down not Mormons.
- Apokalyps2547, on 02/10/2009, -19/+243"Mormons are Americans too."
And Americans pay taxes. Funny how that works. This isn't a movement to ban Mormonism, it's a movement to make a political organization pay taxes. - inactive, on 02/10/2009, -36/+246I don't give a damn what brand of ***** anyone believes until those beliefs begin to turn into laws and campaign platforms, you've overstepped the boundary separating church from state.
- inactive, on 02/10/2009, -55/+205Why are they tax exempt in the first place? Separation of church and state, people
- Zippo, on 02/10/2009, -16/+148The law clearly states, however, that the church is not to get involved with the political process. By funding a political movement, they are no longer eligible for tax exempt status.
- Harabeck, on 02/10/2009, -9/+120Bogus separation?? You'd rather we live in a theocracy?
- inactive, on 02/10/2009, -32/+126Some words of wisdom you may choose to live by at some point in your worthless lifetime...
"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
- JESUS CHRIST
Now get your ass back to church and pray for me so i can keep ***** hookers and blowing lines of coke. - inactive, on 02/10/2009, -21/+110I have a theory that magical invisible green elephants control the universe from their homes inside doorknobs. Prove me wrong and if you can't, you can send your tax dollars to my Paypal account as a "faith based" initiative
- Desmothenes, on 02/10/2009, -5/+90Because they're a non-profit organiation. The fact that they're a church has nothing to do with it.
- AwesomousPrime, on 02/10/2009, -40/+120I think all religion is myth and superstition. let them pay taxes like the rest of us.
- BlackOculus, on 02/10/2009, -5/+84I'd really rather see Scientology have it's tax exempt status revoked.
- Hetman, on 02/10/2009, -5/+81Both of them are responsble for it. Most mexicans are Catholic so they also had a stake in this legislation also.
- santiago1, on 02/10/2009, -9/+83 I'd rather see this happen to the Scientology cult. THEY'RE the ones who should not be tax-exempt, as they really aren't a religion anyway.
- Boing, on 02/10/2009, -19/+82I don't get tax exempt status for my belief in football gods. Also, damn those football gods for keeping the 49ers down!
- stevets, on 02/10/2009, -14/+77Exactly. Tax them all.
- rilian, on 02/10/2009, -17/+78"What makes them so special?"
They're considered a charitable organization. That's why they are tax-exempt. The same thing goes for all other types of churches and synogogues, mosques, etc. It also applies to non-religious charites. You should not make a distinction on what is charitable simply because one organization happens to be religious and one does not.
The United States is supposed to be free. Why shouldn't they be allowed to spend their money as they see fit?
Why should you get any say in how they spend their money? Ultimately the voters of California decided Measure 8. Not the Mormons, nor any other religious group. All those groups did was advertise their point of view on the measure. The first amendment protects all citizens, including those that you disagree with, so that they can express their point of view. Whether that is through a TV ad, a radio ad, a newspaper ad, standing outside and speaking in public or whatever.
The so called "Separation of Church and State" is not in the constitution. It is in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to a preacher reassuring this preacher that religious groups would not be targeted through the first amendment which was yet to be ratified at the time of the writing of the letter. The context of the letter suggests that the first amendment was written to protect citizens and religious groups *FROM* the federal government...not the other way around.
If you tax religious organizations, you essentially are saying "You have to pay to get freedom of speech". The constitution guarantees freedom of speech for all citizens regardless of criteria. - bongo, on 02/10/2009, -11/+71Look, let's get some facts straight here. The majority of Blacks and Latinos voted for it, but that is NOT the same thing as saying that it was mostly them that voted for it. Only 10% of voters were African American, and 18% were Latino. So while their votes did have an impact, to say that they are responsible for it passing is patently false.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Propositio ... - ldailey06, on 02/10/2009, -11/+70@Loneranger
most ignorant post i have ever read on digg - mrmod, on 02/10/2009, -6/+60If only it wasn't through facebook
- Hetman, on 02/10/2009, -27/+78This was bound to happen. The Mormon church is a minority in this country. They helped pass legislation that trampled the rights of a minority. Now as a minority people are trying to trample there rights. This is the reason we do not allow the majority to affect the basic rights of minorities. I would argue that the ability to marry is a more basic right than being a tax exempt orginization.
- gobbleplex, on 02/10/2009, -5/+53LoneRanger may be a neo-con, but he's actually not lying. If you look at the whole reason that churches were given tax-exempt status in the first place, it's entirely because of the separation of church and state. One of the biggest reasons was because if churches could not pay tax, then their opinions on matters were considered to be non-representable in congress. No taxation without representation, and all that. Of course, times have changed and so have recourses for religious groups to push their ideologies into law.
So no, don't strip them of their tax exempt status. Find more ways to neuter their influence in the public square. - Seanathan, on 02/10/2009, -7/+50Moral standards =/= religion.
- YourMomsAnAnon, on 02/10/2009, -2/+444317 members in the group. A good deal shy of a cool million.
Anyways, more people are interested in revoking scientology's tax exemption, for far better reasons.
The message has been delivered to the President himself.
http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/ideas/viewI ... - inactive, on 02/10/2009, -12/+54Dirty little secret: Obama doesn't support gay marriage either. Do you have a point?
- stevets, on 02/10/2009, -4/+44That's an excellent point. Especially when you consider that the money they spend trying to pass these laws could have been tax revenue instead.
They try to make the state work for their beliefs, but refuse to pay taxes like any other entity would. - AFelsinger, on 02/10/2009, -6/+46that's not a secret
- Hetman, on 02/10/2009, -1/+40The only problem I see is non-profit orginizations. Even charities that are not associated with Religions still have tax exempt status. So charitise associated with religious still deserve tax free exempt status.
- seanmx, on 02/10/2009, -18/+55Mormon's are Christians.
- JeffRyemon, on 02/10/2009, -51/+87Religion is going to be the demise of the planet...sooner than we think.
- Spikito, on 02/10/2009, -2/+38Do you even know what separation of church and state means?
- Laqrhead, on 02/10/2009, -4/+39Jesus hates for-profit churches.
"And Jesus entered into the temple and threw out all those selling and buying in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. And he said to them: “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but YOU are making it a cave of robbers.”" Matthew 21:12,13
Perhaps these institutions should take some advice from the person they profess to follow. - garryw, on 02/10/2009, -8/+42Buried for "different state" in description. There are 600,000+ Mormons in California. Disinformation will not help your cause any.
- emailowndme, on 02/10/2009, -6/+39compared to 2000, the vote was much closer. If the over 55 crowd hadn't voted, prop 8 would have been defeated.
- UltraDavid, on 02/10/2009, -36/+69Hey, the LDS church helped prove that we can restrict the fundamental rights of suspect classes of people in violation of equal protection without any kind of showing of need or compelling interest and with only a simple majority vote. I don't see why we can't do whatever we want right back to them (or any other group) as long as we have a simple majority.
Stripping the church of its tax exempt status is thinking too small. Let's have an amendment to make it so that Mormons can't vote in state elections, and if 50.1% of the voters agree, then that'll be that! What, is there any legal reason why not?
I don't mean to come off as prejudiced, I'm just saying it should be hard for members of the church or anyone else who voted for Prop 8 to complain about being treated poorly under the law. - WasabiBomb, on 02/10/2009, -10/+41This is about the Mormon Church, not the Mormons. If the Mormon Church wants to have any say in politics, then they need to pay the admission fee... which is, in this case, taxes.
- BenderFlexo, on 02/10/2009, -7/+38Dobson and his political gangsters need to start paying taxes as well!
- Suricou, on 02/10/2009, -7/+37"They're considered a charitable organization. That's why they are tax-exempt."
Tax exception comes with some conditions though, including a prohibition on direct political campaigning, or endorsement or opposition to specific legislation. When the mormon church threw money into supporting Prop Eight, when it's churches ordered followers to go door-to-door campaigning for it... it violated these conditions. - IphtashuFitz, on 02/10/2009, -4/+34Don't forget to include Scientology...
- pintomp3, on 02/10/2009, -27/+55Use church resources to inject religious views into politics, lose your exempt status.
- Suricou, on 02/10/2009, -7/+35The exact definition of Christian is disputed in religious circles, with many churches refusing to admit other churches are true christians due to some small theological disagreement. However, the Mormon religion does include Christ as the central figure, and the church itsself claims to be Christian, so I'd say it qualifies.
- inactive, on 02/10/2009, -2/+29LiquidSpark: I'm assuming you're a troll (or you forgot your sarcastic tags). If not, however, I must point out that that was single handily the worst argument I have ever witnessed. EVER.
- Finsternis, on 02/10/2009, -21/+48"New rule: If churches don't have to pay taxes, they also can't call the fire department when they catch fire. Sorry reverend, that's one of those services that goes along with paying in. I'll use the fire department I pay for. You can pray for rain."
- Bill Maher - paperclipsNsoup, on 02/10/2009, -7/+34Its not a matter who voted what, its a matter of who funded the campaign and who created the bill.
A religious organization funded millions of dollars in campaign money to pass a bill that they wrote, that has its roots in the bible. - Desmothenes, on 02/10/2009, -20/+46"If anything it should be illegal for any exempt organization to lobby, advocate, or even condemn any politcal stance or affair unless said promoter does so without representing the organization."
Wrong. Do you know how many non-profits are out there specifically for the purpose of lobbying and advocating on behalf of people? ACORN is a prime example. They lobby on behalf on low-income families, endorsed our current president, advocate the funding of health care to those who have none, and organizes massive voter registration drives. Most of these functions are tax exempt.
Being tax exempt is relative to an organization being non-profit... it has nothing to do with promotions of a political nature. - TheLoneBeaver, on 02/10/2009, -11/+37Whatever happened to freedom of religion? Of course they should not be taxed. Neither should Christians, Jews or Atheists have to pay for their beliefs. If this made any sense it would have come up years ago, but it obviously conflicts directly with the constitution. This is nothing more than a reactionary move from everyone who wanted to legalize same-sex marriages in California.
- removesstains, on 02/10/2009, -22/+48This is Gay. Yeah i said what everyone was thinking. go ahead and bury me for my immaturity.
- spearce, on 02/10/2009, -5/+30As a liberal agnostic I could care less if the Mormon religion receives tax exempt status, and I have sneaking suspicion that a lot of those people on that list or conservative Christians. Nothing would make a lot of evangelicals happier then doing away with different religions in America in favor of their own.
They're right. Just ask them. -
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