Churchs and money that goes to them!

Originally posted by Carseller4
You think Unions have power with their political donations? You haven't seen nothing yet, if Churces had that same power.

They already do. It's just laundered most of the time. But not all the time:

A Georgia church violated federal tax law by donating $2,000 to a state legislative candidate, Americans United has charged.

AU has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the incident, which centers on the First Assembly of God in Warner Robins, the church gave Rep. Pamela Bohannon $1,000 in 1998 and $1,000 during her current reelection.

www.thefreelibrary.com...

There's plenty more where that came from.

The prop 8 argument is always interesting to me. Mostly because marrige's roots are religious. The oldest marrige laws we have come from the code of Hammurabi, which were a list of laws given to him by god.

reply to post by Nutter

One thing you are forgetting is that we aren't just talking about Christian churches. You really think that all religions would be allowed to do what you are describing?

Also, I believe pagan religions/churches (whatever you want to call them) don't have this tax exempt status. Are you saying that they can put up a pentagram on the city council columnades?

Since they are not recognized as a religion and pay taxes they could lobby to do whatever they wanted. Im not saying they would get the votes to be able to put prayer back in school but they could try.
If they put together the money they would be well within their rights to put up a stature of whatever there god or gods were as long as they could buy a place to put it up.

[edit on 17-12-2009 by zaiger]

Originally posted by zaiger
The prop 8 argument is always interesting to me. Mostly because marrige's roots are religious. The oldest marrige laws we have come from the code of Hammurabi, which were a list of laws given to him by god.

Since marriage's roots are religious, shouldn't the government keep their nose out of it? Seperation of Church and State is a two-way street.

If they put together the money they would be well within their rights to put up a stature of whatever there god or gods were as long as they could buy a place to put it up.

Isn't this the same as what churches can do now? So, how does the tax exempt status change anything here?

reply to post by Nutter

Since marriage's roots are religious, shouldn't the government keep their nose out of it? Seperation of Church and State is a two-way street.

That is what you would think, but for that to work the state would have to stop making marrige anything legal and turn it into a social affair.

Isn't this the same as what churches can do now? So, how does the tax exempt status change anything here?

No it is not the same, many religious things get taken down in city halls and schools because of the seperation of church and state. A teacher could not put up a christian cross but could put anything up that the governement did not see as a religion. The argument being that if the governement says it is not a religion there is no law saying i can't put my poster of baal up.

Originally posted by zaiger
No it is not the same, many religious things get taken down in city halls and schools because of the seperation of church and state. A teacher could not put up a christian cross but could put anything up that the governement did not see as a religion.

Didn't you say if they bought a place to put it up? How does that relate to a school?

my poster of baal

Do you play Diablo by any chance? Just reminded me of the game.

reply to post by Nutter

Didn't you say if they bought a place to put it up? How does that relate to a school?

I meant that they would be within their rights to present it to be voted on, i do not think they would have the numbers to get anything like that passed. But the churches that are recognized by the state could not put anything forward that would make prayer in school mandatory because of the seperation of church and state.

Do you play Diablo by any chance? Just reminded me of the game.

lol yeah i used to.
But baal worship is not a recognized religion and therefore would not be prohibited from being displayed in a public school. Im not sure what baal worshipers do but they may just trade SoJs and duped swords.

Originally posted by zaiger
Im not sure what baal worshipers do but they may just trade SoJs and duped swords.

I'll give you 3 SOJs for 5 HRs.

Never did figure out how to dupe things.

Back to topic: I can see what you are saying, but I still don't think it would be allowed to happen. Too many christians wouldn't want Buddha standing over them in school.