March 02, 2005
H.R. 235
from - smijer
Aimed at letting churches get away legally, what they get away with anyway. If you like the idea of giving churches even more influence over government, then let them do what no other non-profit can do - campaign without paying taxes. Personally, that thought sends a chill down my spine. Brainwise has the scoop. Also chilling is the Orwellian language H.R. 235's uses to deceive people about the nature of the bill.
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to protect the religious free exercise and free speech rights of churches and other houses of worship.
Noooooo....... the bill is meant to leave intact their free exercise and free speech rights, and allow them continued use of the tax-exemption benefit they are awareded, even while they assist in political campaigns. Want to see the church take over the government? Let them run political campaigns more cheaply than the political organizations can. This is a very, very, very, bad idea.
And meanwhile - anti-separationists, take off the sheep's clothing. I hope your congregations figure out what liars you are.
::Posted by smijer at March 2, 2005 07:49 AM
Many Australians, myself included, are concerned about the influence of the Christian right in American politics.
If successful, this legislation guarantees your evangelical President and his mates a very large war chest for the next Presidential election, and may well change the balance of power in America forever.
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Posted by Glen Wallis on March 12, 2005 04:04 AM Link to comment |
Australia can calm down.
Politics in the US have been influenced by religion since we broke from Britian, and it works on BOTH sides. For every Falwell there's a Jackson. Bush's stuff was preceded by JFK's purchasing of votes from black ministers in the south, which is the only way a Catholic could have been elected at the time. Good or bad, it goes both ways.
The disturbing thing is the labelling in the previous message. Assuming that people with whom you disagree are all liars isn't necessary, nor is it accurate to label supporters of this bill as "anti-seperationists." It would be more accurate to observe that they're stupid and/or ignorant. Why leap to character assassination?
I'm a minister. I just got an email from one of my churchsters asking me to sign some petition about this thing. Now I've done some research, and will send him a note telling him that he's been mislead, and that I'll not support it. Maybe I can influence him to knock off the politics, as I said in my sermon yesterday (which he missed).
Meanwhile, I'd make a similar suggestion to you knuckleheads. Get educated, and calm down. There's nothing to this but some people trying to take advantage of the system. Most of them (as usual) are just too dumb to know better. But since we eliminated the idea of people having to pass tests before being allowed to vote, then we have allowed stupid people to vote. So now we get what we got ... ignorant people get to participate in the process just as well as educated people:
Democracy
You ought to thank God that He has blessed America - especially in light of who's trying to run the place.
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Posted by Gladiator on April 25, 2005 09:21 AM Link to comment |
