Feed the world. It is time for us to move on from all that heavy stuff about youth violence and penal reform. One of the more intractable problems facing us is world hunger. As my contribution to the solution-finding effort, I offer you one of the better proposals I have heard all year.
Let somebody else write about politics. Now that elections are just around the corner, even The Anguillian Newspaper is into writing about local politics and the need for change. That leaves me free to find other, equally worthy causes.
There must be some similar, sensible video that is addressed to Muslims that I could offer up in an equal-opportunity for all religious maniacs gesture. I have not located it yet. Soon come.
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Let's do it. Frank Zappa said years ago that we should "Tax the Churches". He was right.
ReplyDeleteWhy not? Why are they tax exempt? What do I as a non-believer get for my money? It's not as if religion has increased morality, peace or prosperity for mankind...
The Catholic Church in particular can have no claims to the moral high ground - think about the lives destroyed by their anti-condom stance, or by their backing of pedofile priests (to name but a few, recent highlights).
So, they should self-destruct in the ultimate act of self-sacrifice: by selling their assets and giving them to the poor. What do they really need all those gold chalices for anyway - did't Jesus drink from a simple cup (or so I am told)?
We pause now for a word from Our Leader.
ReplyDelete"While it is true that I don't live a real Christian life, many of
our candidates and supporters are so-called Christians."
--Osbourne Fleming, political meeting, 1984
I asked the same question when touring the Museum and Sistine Chapel etc at the Vatican.i.e. sell the paintings etc etc.to feed and clothe the poor Answer... what will happen when all used up? Better to be getting steady income from visitors (most people who visit Rome pay handsomely to enter the Vatican premises) and that is used to support Catholic Charities and provide hospitals,etc worldwide.
ReplyDeleteMade sense to me.
Selling one of Joel Osteen's mega-mansions would go a long way to diminishing the welfare rolls.
ReplyDelete#1 Anon is spot on with the tax issue. Why are churches tax exempt, when some of them bring in millions of dollars per year? I'm sure many of us would be flabbergasted at the salaries they pay themselves.
I believe all religions to be fantasy, however some go over the top, i.e. Scientology or LDS. If one can fool enough people with dreamy stories of grandeur, inventing a new church and becoming an instant millionaire off of the labor of fools is fairly simple. - Scotty
I go even further. Tax all "non-profit" enterprise.
ReplyDeleteOr better, tax *no* enterprise at all.
After all, as Maggie liked to say, there are no collective rights, only individual rights.
Thus there is no such thing as collective responsibility either, which is really no different from collective retribution when you think about it.
Since the use of force, or the necessity to contract for same with your friendly local force-monopolist, is an *individual* responsibility, let *individuals* pay for it at tax time.
Thus individual priests, preachers, charity bluenoses, busybodies and do-gooders pay for the government they use like the rest of us do, but not their cash-flow generating enterprises ("donations" are revenue, and "surpluses" are retained earnings).
In the meantime, tax exemptions for "non-profit" enterprises is just theft from anyone who *does* pay taxes, and, with taxation itself being theft, non-profit tax exemption is theft compounded. Theft on theft, in other words.