What happens when a church promotes a candidate?
Offline I was reading another thread that was discussing whether a tax-paying church can promote a particular candidate and it got me thinking...
I've *heard* of churches that ask that you vote for a particular candidate or another, but does this happen on a regular basis? If they're tax exempt they can't do this right? Is this a regular occurance?
I'd like to hear from the few of you that attend or are forced to attend church regularly. Do they promote candidates on the sly or do they come right out and tell you who to vote for and why?
If we got this on film or recorded it somehow, what would that do to their tax-exempt status, I wonder. If this really happens regularly, it might be interesting to get a movement of atheists/agnostics attending church to bust them, lol.
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The candidate gets elected.
I see this on those TV evangelical programs. I'm sure they do promote candidates, usually republican. I don't think it would have any affect on their tax exempt status. Why would it? on what basis? separation of church and state? They probably donate $$ to the party of the candidate they promote.
I think a few people are ahead of you GodsLimits
If you see a church do something like this and fill out a form for the irs about it then the church could lose its status as tax exempt.
I don't care if the church has tax exempt status or not, they should have no authority to back a candidate because the church has something of a stranglehold on the viewpoints of many of the members of their congregations. In my freshman year of highschool one of the school board members: Leslie Pinney, was an evangelical backed by several churches when she ran the year before and she tried to ban several books from being taught in classes. here is the list: The things they carried, perks of being a wall flower, Slaughterhouse five, Freakonimics, Beloved, Botany of Desire: a plants-eye view of the world.
Luckily her attempt failed 6-1, there was a huge debate at the school board meeting where well over 750 people joined, about 250 of them were from her church and very few of those people were even from the district, it was appauling.
Theoretically, if you got it on film, they ought to lose their tax-exempt status.
In practice, you'll get jammed up in court for years, and nothing will come of it, because you'll probably be sued for something, the community will come down on you, and the judge won't be stupid enough to set a precedent that would piss off 2/3 of the country.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
The FFRF has reported churches to the IRS and had them lose tax exempt status. Better to report to the IRS than handle it in court yourself.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Well, now.... that's just damn smart.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
This may not apply to this thread but I just have to say it. I once called the IRS to report a christian woman was claiming her christian books as a write off on her taxes. The IRS agent refused to investigate as he assumed it was only a few dollars. I explained this woman had been doing this for years and it wasn't just a few books. She is a speed reader and had volumns of books and videos about prophecy and the bible. She claimed somewhere in the $10,000.00 amonts over time. She has an entire room and den filled with all of the books and videos. The agent said well maybe reading the christian literature and watching the videos she will learn it is a sin to cheat on her taxes and refused to investigate. He said it's good for her to have those books and claimed she would change for the better for having read them all. I was furious. This woman bought thousands of books and used every penny she spent as a tax write off. I said does everybody get to do that. Spend thousands of dollars on books and videos they have an interest in and then claim that money as a tax write off? of course they said no but said " these are christian books so it's good for her to read them." SOB I as furious.
I don't know if this matters but I do wonder if they saw on the computer that a lawyer prepared her taxes and they were reluctant to investigate (audit) her for that reason also.
So considering the IRS doesn't give a rats ass about what a christian does as far as cheating on their taxes even when in the thousands of dollars range then I tend to think they won't when it comes the preachers promoting political candidates, especially if it's not done at every sermon.