Until Your God Pays Taxes, You Have No Say In My Government

by / on October 1, 2015 at 8:30 am /
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church_taxesAside from the galactic ignorance and bigotry on display here, the constitutional and historic illiteracy are the stuff of legend.

According to the mindset behind this bit of genuis, Christians have no right to engage in public discourse or chime in on the issues? Only those who pass an anti-faith litmus test can vote? The marketplace of ideas is a Christian-free zone? Ditto public service? And we’ll send you the secret agent decoder ring as soon as you mail in enough box tops to the IRS.

So why does the mere notion of –gasp!- Christians engaging in political activism and civic involvement rattle these folks’ cages?  Who do they think they are? goes this sentiment, Fully-fledged Americans with the same constitutional rights as the rest of us? How dare they take their faith seriously enough to bring it outside the four walls of their Sunday services?

Ted Cruz 2016

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I have answer for that: It’s “my government,” too.

Here’s a little newsflash: In a constitutional republic, We The People are “the government.” Not We The Atheists or We The Agnostics. Not We The Liberal Left. Or We The Overzealous Busybodies Who Get *Miffed* Every Time Someone Utters the “G Word,” How Dare You Offend Our Tender Anti-Christian Sensibilities? crowd.

But We The People.

Woodrow Wilcox

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Going way out on a limb here, but I’m pretty sure Christians qualify.

Also, while the institutional “Church” may not “pay taxes,” folks who make up said entity do – sales taxes, income taxes, gas taxes, payroll taxes, death taxes… Doubtless the intricacies of that little subtlety are lost on the usual Christophobes – most of whom can’t count past “one” when it comes to the Bill of Rights – which apparently applies only to them. Like that’s not patronizing or anything. But what else is new?

I can see it now: the Sunday Morning Tax-Tithing Czar will now determine which of you has *paid* for the right to “have a say” in your government. The line forms to the Left.

Meanwhile, ever notice how some of these same sanctimonious defenders of Truth, Justice, and the American Way are among the first to advocate revoking or restricting Truth, Justice, and the American anything from those with whom they disagree?

Welcome to the flip side of “discrimination.” You know, the same thing Christophobes rage against in any other context.

Let me count the hypocrisies.

This sentiment isn’t just nauseatingly elitist, patronizing and absurd. It’s nauseatingly elitist, patronizing and absurd. It comes out like: “How dare you impose your Christian views on me?” To which one may rightly respond: “How dare you impose your anti-Christian views and values on me?”

Here’s another little newsflash: That’s called “dialogue.” The free exchange of ideas. Competition. The Gulag Brigade may want to look those up. (That’s okay. I’ll wait.)

As for the brain surgeons who advocate that only those who pay taxes can “have a say” in “my government”? Great. Because that zeroes-out half the Democrat voting base.

Regarding the Gulag Brigade, at least they’re honest – one of those dreaded ”tax free” Christian values they seemingly want to rip from the public square and replace with good ‘ole fashioned anarchistic moral relativism. What a bargain.

Make no mistake, folks. This is anti-Christian bigotry and viewpoint-based censorship on parade. In living Technicolor.  (Batteries not included. Accessories sold separately).

Then again, if churches lose their tax exempt status, maybe more Christian leaders will fear God more than the IRS?

The Gulag Brigade may be on to something.

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A multi-published author and recovering Democrat, Kristine Lowder is a native Californian recently transplanted to the People's Republic of Washington State. She still refuses to cede her life, fortune, or sacred honor to liberal Nazgul or anyone else with poor eyesight. Kristine is a graduate of Biola University. You can find her online at: Kristine Lowder, Writer or at Conservelocity.
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  • Thisoldspouse

    Why should churches have to pay taxes? If I give my child or another family member $1,000 does that result in a taxable event (I know that the “gifting” rules cap this at something like $12,000/year without being taxable, but in general, monetary gifts are not taxable.)?

    What is a church but a “family” of like minded believers, in a very real sense. Offerings aren’t “income” any more than a gift I give my child, sibling or parent is “income” to them.

    • http://www.americanclarion.com/ Bob Ellis

      There are a number of reasons why churches have NEVER been subject to taxation in the history of the United States.

      One of those reasons is the recognition that churches perform a vital and irreplaceable service for the state, not only in caring for the poor and needy, but also in teaching citizens to be productive, law-abiding members of society. We all know (and if we don’t, we should) how much it costs the taxpayers every year to deal with the problems which come from the breakdown of the family, and with crime in general. This cost has grown into the billions in recent years with government’s hostility toward Christian values and principles, as well as the state’s usurpation of and the church’s abdication of its responsibility to both teach people right from wrong, and to fulfill the role of caring for the genuinely needy.

      Another important reason why churches have never been subject to taxation in the United States is the recognition that the power to tax is the power to control…and to destroy, if so desired. The Federalist featured a good article on this recently: http://thefederalist.com/2015/09/28/taxing-churches-would-marry-church-and-state/

      As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story said of the First Amendment’s so-called separation of church and state:

      The real object of the amendment was, not to countenance, much less to advance Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects, and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment, which should give to an hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government. It thus cut off the means of religious persecution, (the vice and pest of former ages,) and of the subversion of the rights of conscience in matters of religion, which had been trampled upon almost from the days of the Apostles to the present age.

      The founders never intended our government to even be indifferent to religion and morality. They understood the vital role of religious morality in the maintenance of our government and freedom, as evidenced by this statement from President George Washington:

      Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

      Unfortunately, even an indifference from government would be preferable to the current state of overt hostility toward Christianity being waged by the federal government.

      DCM7 has often drawn the analogy of someone sawing off the tree branch upon which they sit as a description of those who are working to punish (and thereby eradicate) Christian influence on society. He could not be more right.

      • franklinb23

        I think people forget that pastors and priests pay income taxes (as they should).

        Should any religious institution be tax exempt, though? What about the Church of Scientology?

        • http://www.americanclarion.com/ Bob Ellis

          You’re right. Pastors/priests, as individual wage earners, do pay income taxes.

          Though Scientology is a bunch of nonsense ( really like some of Hubbard’s scifi, but the religion he invented is hokey), objectively speaking, it would be entitled to the same tax exemption as any other church.

          • Thisoldspouse

            I object to the misnomer “tax exempt,” as it connotes that except for some granted “exemption,” churches would be subject to taxation. It’s a very subtle turn of a term, but is deeply significant. When wielded by power-hungry leftists, they set the tone of our governmental system to the default idea that ALL behavior is restricted unless permitted in their discretionary benevolence.

            One of the protest signs carried by an Orthodox Jew during the New York marriage redefinition debates was piercingly accurate: “The Road To Hell is Paved with Religious Exemptions.”

        • Thisoldspouse

          First, ask how churches are tax exempt. Income tax exempt? Property tax exempt? Terms need to be defined before we start debating with reckless and false assertions.

  • AJ

    State has no authority over the Church….. My patience with my fellow man is running thin, but that’s my problem…..