Sign petition for churches violating tax law!
There is a petition right now on whithouse.gov about churches which violate the law by advocating for specific political candidates. Please go sign this petition, it needs at least 25,000 signatures by July 24.
Personally I feel that churches shouldn't have tax exempt status. They don't pay property taxes, yet make use of the same fire and police services the rest of us do. I live in Harlem and the number of buildings used for churches is huge, and yet they don't help with the economic well-being of the community. Not that we need more bodegas and hamburger joints, but we do need better schools and public services that are tied to property taxes. Churches spend relatively little of their revenue on physical charity (see the article in Free Inquiry on how everyone in the US subsidizes religion, whether they want to or not, which discusses the actual amounts spent on physical, direct charity), and that which they use for their parishioner's spiritual concerns is more of a service being provided for which they are paying than charity. So why should they be tax exempt and why should I help subsidize them?
One of the reasons for the First Amendment was that people didn't want to have to pay for religions that weren't their own. And yet now we have things like these tax exemptions which do cost the rest of us money, Faith-Based Initiatives, and public school vouchers being used for religious schools.
Since 2008, pastors of some churches have openly supported and advocated specific political candidates in sermons to members in early October in an event referred to as "Pulpit Freedom Sunday". According to Reuters, videos of these sermons are sent to the offices of the IRS.
According to section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, the provision of the tax code from which these churches derive their tax-exempt status, a compliant organization must not "participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of ... any candidate for public office."
The IRS has failed to remove the tax-exempt status of these churches despite their violations of tax code. This must change, and the law must be applied equally to everyone.
One of the reasons for the First Amendment was that people didn't want to have to pay for religions that weren't their own. And yet now we have things like these tax exemptions which do cost the rest of us money, Faith-Based Initiatives, and public school vouchers being used for religious schools.
