Freedom From Religion Foundation Suing IRS

The FFRF filed suit last week in Federal Court against the IRS for its failure to enforce federal laws disallowing churches from electioneering. All I can say is it's about time someone did this.

During the last election cycle, churches were politicking from the pews in droves as well as advertising supporting the republican party. Billy Graham's evangelical Association went so far as to take out ads in the New York Times encouraging citizens to vote according to biblical principles. Never mind the fact that ours is a secular nation, established under a secular document which guarantees separation of church and state. Catholic Bishops warned people that they should vote according to Catholic principles or risk eternal damnation. Add to that “pulpit Freedom Sunday” where churches flaunted the laws prohibiting politicking from the pulpit in the IRS's face and you have a growing problem of religious organizations telling their members how to vote and the IRS sitting idly by or simply just ignoring it.

Contrary to what most believers think, the constitution does not make a single mention of god, the bible or christian principles. The only religious references are the first amendment which guarantees freedom of religion and Article VI Paragraph 3 which states that no religious test can be required to hold political office. The silence in the constitution regarding religion make it very clear that religion has no place in our political process.

Hopefully, the lawsuit will be successful and the churches that are guilty will be stripped of their tax exempt status. It'll be a win for everyone, except the organizations stupid enough to think they don't have to follow the law, because the government will get a huge infusion of cash which it should have been getting all along. Personally, they should just go ahead and let them preach politics from the pulpit and make the cost of political participation for churches the same as it is for the rest of us – tax them. They are going to tell their parishioners what issues are “right or wrong” no matter what so there is no point in stopping them. Tax exempt status is nothing more than pandering to the religious right and letting them have a free ride.

The Italians have it right. They have stripped large portions of the Catholic Church's tax exemptions from them in order to pay off the natioanl deficit. They have finally realized that much of what the church does is strictly business and for profit and has absolutely nothing to do with religion, charity or anything else the church claims is their purpose for existence. It's time we take their lead and do the same thing to churches and religious organizations whose sole purpose is to essentially be a community organization or club, not a charitable organization that serves the poor and people in need. Sorry, but if all your church does is provide sermons on superstitious nonsense and a rec center for its members, they need to pay taxes because that is not a charity, it's a club for it's members. That is exactly what the vast majority of churches are, nothing more than clubs for the people who pay their weekly dues. If your church does provide some form of charitable work, then that portion of it's income and that portion only should be tax exempt, the rest should be taxed.

The truth is that churches have been given special status that they have not earned and it's time that we look at them for exactly what they are – businesses that provide no real tangible or valuable services to the people who support them.