May 15, 2005
Free Speech or Tax Exemption
from - Buck
I was playing disc golf with a friend of mine Sunday morning and we started discussing the East Waynesville excommunication. My friend classifies himself as an agnostic and is definitely in favor of the separation of church and state. However he brought up an interesting point. He asked me if I did not think that by threatening to take away the tax exempt status of a church the government was not, in effect, denying them their freedom of speech. My personal opinion is that my freedom to speak is more important than any tax exemption I might be offered. But I guess if I were a business instead of an individual then tax exemption would be more important to me. The Constitution supposedly guarantees freedom of speech but it does not guarantee exemption from taxes. Maybe the reality is that if you offer anybody enough money they will be willing to keep their political opinions to themselves.
::Posted by Buck at May 15, 2005 11:24 PM
Religious organizations receive tax-exempt status by agreeing to stay on the political sidelines. If churches want to preach about anything other than religion, they are free to do so, but they better fatten their collection plates to pay their fair share of taxes. Individual church members and personnel are not denied the freedom to speak about politics, or any other subject under the sun. It is when they use their resources to speak as one voice that their tax status is at risk, because it violates our Constitution. Individual free speech is, and hopefully always will be protected.
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Posted by Lauria on May 17, 2005 01:37 AM Link to comment |
I posted before about this...
The problem is that political organizations are taxed by law. To exempt churches and let them function as political organizations will create a situation where the most economical way to run a political campaign is out of a religious institution. This is bad for democracy and bad for the church, too.
Lauria, I don't think that it is against our constitution to have tax exemptions for politicized church any more so than for regular church. I certainly can't think of a reason it would be. And the right to free association and assembly are protected by the constitution. The problem seems to be more a legal and ethical one, although I'm not sure an amendment isn't needed to make it a constitutional issue as well.
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Posted by smijer on May 17, 2005 09:29 AM Link to comment |
