Church Automatic Tax Exemption, The Unpunished American Treason

Church Tax Exemption, The Unpunished American Treason. Surprisingly, many people don’t fully grasp what tax exemption is, so allow me to elaborate on the subject. Tax exemption is the state of being exempt from paying taxes to State or Federal government on certain income incurred by a qualified organization. This part is easy to explain, but what people overlook is the taxation itself. Tax dollars are the money that the government collects to build roads, bridges, schools, parks, go to wars with poor brown nations 20,000 miles away, and many other social, political, and cultural activities. In short, tax is the contribution of every citizen to his country’s welfare.

When an organization is exempt from paying taxes, it means that rest of society has to cover the deficit. So, when the government grants tax exemption status to an organization, the government assumes that the said organization will provide public benefits to other bodies of society, so great in value, that justifies the deficit imposed on the tax budget.

When you ask Christians why Churches should be exempt from paying taxes, they have a few cookie-cutter answers that throw in the ring:

Because church donors already paid taxes on their income.(So does every other donor who donates to any organization!)

Taxing Churches is a sure way of government interfering with freedom of religion. (Bread and butter of Church propaganda)

and of course my favorite, which happens to be a terrifying statement:

Donations to Churches are God’s money and the United States government has no jurisdiction over God.

Tax exemption is not a right; it’s a temporary privilege. In fact, tax exemption is the highest privilege a government can give an organization. In order for the government to consider an organization eligible for such trust, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) subjects the applicant to a battery of tests and scrutiny in order to weed out potential crooks and charlatans. This test is called the “Application for Recognition of Exemption”, an ungodly long and meticulous process that probes every hole and cavity of the applying organization to find flaws and misinformation. In addition, the IRS charges the applicant a non-refundable user fee of $450 – $850 dollars, based on their projected revenue, in order to review the application.

Once the application is approved, the organization becomes legally responsible to provide the IRS with timely and strict annual financial reports on their income, expenditures, programs expenses, real estate holdings, etc. Some States like California even take it further to enforce large tax exempt organizations that handle public funds, to conduct yearly third party audits in order to ensure no corruption is taking place within the organization. Remember the term Public Funds, because it will make a lot more sense later.

Acquiring tax exemption comes with great responsibilities and requires utmost transparency. Because exempt organizations are supported mainly by public funds, it is illegal for these organizations to support and/or oppose candidates running for public office on any level, and to cap it off, the IRS imposes severe limitations on influencing legislation and lobbying by exempt organizations. This is just a simplified version of the story, but it should give you an idea of what’s involved.

So after reading this, you are probably thinking, “What a great system!” and you are probably thanking the heavens for the IRS. But don’t jump the gun just yet. IRS’s hands are tied when it comes to dealing with the most corrupt of all organizations; Churches.

Churches, the disgrace to the true nonprofit sector are neither obligated, nor willing to share ANY financial information with the public, their own members, or anyone else for that matter. It’s imperative to mention that Churches enjoy “automatic tax exemption”, NOT by due process or paying fees, like every other exempt organization, but as an implicit and God given “right.”

Let me rephrase that again, because it’s awfully important. Churches don’t pay a single dollar in taxes. They don’t share any financial information that every other exempt organization in the country is subjected to by law, and they publicly influence legislations, and support and oppose election candidates nationwide on regular basis.

So, where does the IRS stand when it comes to conducting investigations into Church matters that “automatically” regards exempt from paying taxes? The following is straight from the mouth of the IRS. It’s appalling. It’s shameful. And it’s utterly ridicules.

The IRS may only initiate a Church tax inquiry if a high-ranking IRS official, reasonably believes, based on a written statement of the facts and circumstances, that the organization: (a) may not qualify for the exemption; or (b) may not be paying tax on unrelated business or other taxable activity.

Which means, the IRS will look into wrongdoing of a Church, only if the scandal makes the national headlines. This implies that when the Church commits a crime, only God should be the judge, whether it is raping altar boys or evading billions in taxes.

Many of you might not even be old enough or care enough to remember Heritage USA, a theme park which was erected from the tax dollars of American people for the sole enjoyment and amusement of the faithful by Praise The Lord Club (PTL), in Fort Mill, South Carolina. I used to live three miles from the site and the events are still a vivid memory for many Carolina residents.

Founded by televangelist Jim Bakker and his ET looking wife, Tammy Faye Bakker, Heritage USA was no ordinary establishment. Averaging $120 million dollars in revenue per year, HUSA was a top vacation-destination only behind Disneyland, and it was the heaven on earth for every living Christian soul, including their dogs. Jerry Falwell, the controversial Baptist televangelist, monumentally raised over $20 million dollars in one single fundraising drive to show his support for PTL, and his historic plunge down the 163 ft water slide of the park became national news. Everything was good and holy, until its founder Jim Bakker raped the famous Playboy Model Jessica Hahn, and tried to silence her by paying her $287,000 out of organization funds. This time national attention on the fiasco became too much for the IRS to ignore, like it always does. This time the IRS came through by auditing the embarrassing church scandal and revoked their (of course, automatically granted) exemption status.

The Charlotte Observer ran exposes of PTL’s finances and management practices. Pictures and footage of an air-conditioned doghouse emerged from the home of Jim and Tammy Faye, and PTL went bankrupt after being taken over by Jerry Falwell, who offered to step in following the scandal. Under Falwell’s leadership, Heritage USA sought chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with debts estimated at 72 million dollars. The 165,000 people who each gave 1,000 dollars (a mighty sum of 165 million dollars) to Jim’s planned hotel tower (in return for promised four-day vacation stay) each received only $6.54 in return. One hundred and sixty five million dollars vanished into oblivion right under the nose of the IRS through their automated tax exemption grant system, and failure to regulate these criminals.

Jim Bakker was found guilty on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy, fined 500,000 dollars, and spent less than 5 years in prison. His monster looking wife, Tammy Faye, continued to sell imaginary-houses in heaven above on live television, despite being an accessory to this abomination, until her timely death from a fate-earned Colon Cancer in 2007. Jerry Falwell who humorist George Hayduke, called a “fund-grubbing electronic Bible-banger” and, “pious pride-in-the-pulpit,” went on to become the most ridiculed man in American History for saying and doing stupid things that made George W. Bush appear like Aristotle. And this scandal was, and is, one of the smaller scale frauds that go on every day from Mississippi to California.

Why did the IRS fail to prevent such disaster?

It wasn’t because there are no patriotic people in the IRS, or that it is a corrupt branch of the government. No, they failed because they couldn’t do anything even if they wanted to. They followed the laws set for them by the congress which implicitly do not permit interference with Churches.

If a nonprofit organization CEO rode around in a custom designed bulletproof Mercedes, and if he had a butler to put on his socks and attend to his needs 24/7, and if he had a personal chef to exclusively prepare his meals, and if he had a personal physician on location at all times, and if he had a slave to hold an umbrella over his head when it rained, and if he wore a funny red hat,.. I wonder if one person with sound mind would even think of donating a single penny to such a parasite. But somehow people sign over their paychecks to a similar joker that does all the above using tax payers’ money, just because he is called the Pope!

Reverend Leon Milton Birkhead, a truly rare and moderate man of God puts it so beautifully in so few sentences:

It is claimed for the church that it ought to be exempt from taxation because of the valuable social service which it renders to human suffering. It is well just to keep in mind two facts: first, that very few churches are actually engaged in ministering to the poor (other agencies render such services much more efficiently), and, second, that the churches so engaged never do so from the highest motives; they are always thinking of winning supporters and members.

And he goes on to say:

The church contributes services to the state as a police power more valuable than the mere pittance it might pay on its tax exempt property, the friends of religion claim. But does it? I ask this question in all sincerity. It may be there was a time when people could be frightened into being good by the fear of hell. It may be that Voltaire was right in his day when he said that he didn’t believe in hell, but he wanted his servants to believe in It. But that time is gone, for hell has been abolished and the church has lost its power (if it ever possessed it) to keep “bad people” in order. It is illuminating in this connection to read the statistics with respect to the religion of criminals confined in our penitentiaries. To tax church property would put many churches out of existence. The defenders of the exemption of church property say, If an organization cannot pay its way, if it hasn’t members and friends who believe in it sufficiently to support it, why should those of us who do not believe in it at all, who believe, in fact, that it is a vicious, superstitious institution, be compelled to support it? We all agree that there may be some excuse for exempting schools, orphanages, and hospitals from taxation, for they are performing functions the state would be obliged to perform. But religion is another matter — a very personal and private matter which is no affair of the state.

This is not a matter of believing in God on a personal level or not. Whether you offer your prayers to Captain Kangaroo or Jesus Christ, practicing your religion is your personal and private right, and I’m the first to defend your rights to do so. But when the imaginary-god worshippers get together to form a criminal organization and call it a Church, this activity becomes an ever occurring crime of abuse and exploitation on a scale so grand that affects not only every citizen of this country; but it reaches far out to other nations in forms of foreign policies, sanctions, embargoes, wars, and genocides, all because of giving too much power to these time-proven guilty organizations without the slightest of regulations. And our government funds them with your tax dollars.

Let’s say that you go to a restaurant and there happen to be 40 people eating at another table. They finish their meals and when the time comes to pay the bill, the table of 40 would announce that they believe in Jesus Christ and because of their belief they should not pay their bill. The restaurant owner would then hold you accountable to pay their bill plus your own. I wonder what your reaction would be? Wouldn’t you be outraged? Wouldn’t you feel wronged for something that shouldn’t have been your responsibility?

If you would feel like that for getting stuck with paying the bill for 40 Christians at the restaurant, why don’t you feel like that every day when you pay the Churches’ bills with your tax dollars for things that have nothing to do with you? And more insulting; for activities that you neither endorse nor believe in. What great folks these Christians are who impose their legal and social responsibilities on others, so they can conduct their shameful business of preaching their personalized dogmatic interpretation of “godliness” tax free. What a Christian thing to do.

And some people may think this is a small sum of money that can be waived. Taxes on real estate holding and assets of the Catholic Church alone could balance the Federal budget deficit. These are unpaid and dodged taxes on properties and activities that are strictly unrelated to anything charitable or educational. They operate profit making businesses, like parking lots, billboard lots, gymnasiums, fast-food restaurants, stadiums, wedding halls,… and they don’t pay their taxes, because it’s their god given right, until they get caught once in a blue moon. Then their cries go up to the heavens on how the Church was betrayed by the government and they can’t wait to ask the very same government they try to “keep out”, to punish the whistleblowers. The justice system of our country has become a mockery of mafia bought judges on Church payrolls, and if the judges in the Supreme Court fail to deliver, they revert to their terrorizing tactics to get the job done.

Article Six of the United States Constitution provides that, “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States”. But somehow in our corrupt Christian run government system, every public office candidate, regardless of his political party, feels the urge to do two things before addressing any meaningful issues:

To showcase his unsightly wife to demonstrate his commitment to sanctity of marriage; an ambiguous basis for every sheep-like activity that is the backbone of every religion. To lend his lips to the Church leaders’ asses to get approval of their unquestioningly obedient and reasonless congregation before every election, from Town Halls to the White House.

In 1802 Thomas Jefferson coined the phrase “Separation of Church and State” echoing “…I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”

Church and State might seem separated, but in reality, they are one.

The only group that benefits from this declaration is the Church and only the Church, as they have a green light from the Congress and the Supreme Court to do anything they damn please, and not be accountable to any authority but their imaginary god. When the table turns and they need to stick their fingers where they don’t belong, they are all in favor of bringing the “Separation Wall” down, so they can participate in State matters; stealing jobs, getting their crooks elected, passing laws for more protection for their illegal entities, money laundering, and spending millions in supporting their criminal candidates to have their own puppets inside the White House or the sellout Congress.

The First and fourteenth Amendments to United States Constitution clearly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”, which means no preference, prohibition in establishment, and/or aid should be given to any religious organization.

Federal government and States are violating the Constitution by giving certain religious organizations special preference as the only religious organizations that are automatically exempt from paying taxes without question. All other not-so-recognized religious groups, have to go through the same process as everyone else. So in reality, the United States Government steps on the Constitution with muddy boots to illegally give the highest privilege it can give by “selecting” between the bunch.

While the Christian Churches cry wolf day and night for being discriminated against, they discriminate against anyone they don’t like and they get away with it. Take the Seventh Day Adventist Church for example. They have no shame to write on their website and university brochures, that they publicly discriminate against Non-Adventists in hiring practices, disciplinary action, and promotions, while they claim to be exempt from paying taxes under the section 501(c)(3) of the Internal revenue code. Since the community in which Churches reside, subsidizes Churches by means of tax exemption, one would suppose that they would be community institutions. But such is not the case. They are very exclusive and are quick to deny their privileges to the public except upon very exacting conditions. It is needless to mention that these criminal organizations are naturally entitled to publicly paid-for services such as police protection, fire department, public transportation, and public roads, etc.

The Church influences the State on every possible and imaginable level. They have lobbyists at Capitol Hill, they have congressmen, senators, and pretty much every US presidential candidate on their payroll. They manipulate their political and financial power to corrupt and cripple the government and the society, and do it with extreme diligence and determination, much like the cancer that they are. They multiply and take over the vital organs of the country, until nothing is left to keep the host alive. The Band-Aids that the few patriotic State and Federal agencies try to put on this cancer to keep it under control is just like Chemotherapy, it fails more often than not and only makes the host look bald. The cancer prevails if you don’t cut it out at the source.

Even if you overlook the relaxed zoning rules and special parking privileges for Churches, the tax-free status of Church properties, the fact that Christmas is a federal holiday, the fact that the motto of our seemingly secular nation is “In God We trust”, and the fact that our so called “servants” on the highest levels, such as the Supreme Court, are nothing but Christian individuals whose allegiance is not to their country, but to their Church; you can’t overlook the pummeled rights of millions of Americans who suffer involuntarily because of these villains.

So why do I say Churches are organized crime sects with tax exemption? Well imagine a single person committing the following crimes in his life time who also happened to be exempt from paying taxes:

Raping young boys, marrying girls at age 12 against their will, slaughtering several civilizations because they worshiped the wrong god, ordering assassinations on other nations’ leaders, running extermination camps, causing the bloodiest and longest wars, destroying others’ homes, executing children in cold blood, beheadings, burning at stake… do I need to count more?

If there was such a person, his tax exemption status would be the last thing on your mind. He would most certainly be hunted, prosecuted, and hanged upside down from the Statue of Liberty. And people would travel from every corner of the country to line up in thousands to spit on his rotten hanging body. But somehow people close their eyes when Churches get to do all the above, regularly, openly, and unapologetically. Their actions are justified as a sick and twisted accepted normality.

The phrase American Christian is an oxymoron. There is no such a thing as an American Christian. A Christian is one who is pure in heart and mind, thought, word and deed and follows in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, adhering to the teachings of Jesus. A Christian’s allegiance is to God first and then to his country, provided his country abides by the laws of God. If his country does not abide by God’s Law, he should leave that country peacefully.

But a deluded, dogma-infested believer in a Church pretending to be God’s authority on earth that is void of truth and purity will say, “to hell with the country” and practices vengeance, because he is not one bit shy to go to war against it. If a day comes that the United States bans Christianity, you can be sure that there will be armies of deluded self-proclaimed Christians armed to the teeth, raping, burning, and murdering every Non-Christian in sight. They’ve done it before and they’ll do it again.

Take the Mormon Church, which is one of the most profitable Churches in the United States, as an example. Not only is the Mormon’s short history filled with high treason against the country, but it is also one of the darkest pages of our recent history.

John Taylor, the third President, Prophet, Seer and Revelator of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Pope like figure amongst Mormons, once uttered:

We believe in honesty, morality, and purity; but when they [The United States] enact tyrannical laws, forbidding us the free exercise of our religion, we cannot submit. God is greater than the United States, and when the Government conflicts with heaven, we will be ranged under the banner of heaven and against the Government.

And this treasonous quote is not in regard with the government trying to tax them, or not even letting them worship their swindler Prophet, Joseph Smith. No, this stance was taken against the United States making Polygamy a felony charge. In essence, the Mormon Church chose to go to war with its host country rather than abandoning rape and forcing underage girls to marry adult men in dozens.

Listening to a religious nut is one thing and putting it to practice is another. But as all religions, the followers must be brain dead to begin with, so reasoning is out of the window. “Under the banner of heaven” the Mormon Church slaughtered 140 innocent men, women and children in retaliation to the restrictions imposed by the government, in what became known as the Mountain Meadow Massacre; and that is only counting one incident. By the way, the Mormon Churches are also automatically exempt from paying taxes. What a just way to punish murderers.

The motto of the United States should be changed from “In God we Trust” to “In god we trust that we have the right to screw anyone else who doesn’t trust in our god.”

So the next time you sit in your Church, remember that you are sitting on tax dollars of millions of Americans who you, by now knowingly, and illegally force to sponsor your gathering. Remember it when you impose your legal duty on the shoulders of single mothers, cripples, the poor, and those who don’t believe in your god, to subsidize the income of your Church clergies and employees. Remember it when you force the gay and women to pay your leaders paychecks by their tax dollars when such positions are reserved only for men, and men of your god only.

It’s up to you, the citizens of the United States to rise up and defend your rights. Haven’t you had enough? Haven’t you seen enough? How much more can you take? The only thing you haven’t done is to bend over and spread your cheeks!

Very few political leaders in our country have had the courage to speak out against these extortions. President Ulysses S. Grant was one of the brave few who spoke his mind in a message to Congress in 1875:

I would also call your attention to the importance of correcting an evil that, if permitted to continue, will probably lead to great trouble in our land before the close of the nineteenth century. It is the acquisition of vast amounts of untaxed church property. [In 1850, I believe, the church property of the United States, which paid no tax, municipal or state, amounted to about $83,000,000. In 1860 the amount had doubled. In 1875 it is about $1,000,000,000. By 1900, without a check, it is safe to say this property will reach a sum exceeding $3,000,000,000. So vast a sum, receiving all the protection and benefits of government without bearing its proportion of the burdens and expenses of the same, will not be looked upon acquiescently by those who have to pay the taxes.] In a growing country, where real estate enhances so rapidly with time as in the United States, there is scarcely a limit to the wealth that may be acquired by corporations, religious or otherwise, if allowed to retain real estate without taxation. The contemplation of so vast a property as here alluded to, without taxation, may lead to sequestration without constitutional authority, and through blood. I would suggest the taxation of all property equally, whether church or corporation.

Nearly 140 years has passed since the last brave American official has stood for something he believed in and we are still in the pit of supporting religion. There are only two options on the table:

Either tax the Churches and take away the privileges that other exempt organizations are not entitled to; or, allow Churches to apply for tax exemption, but put them in the same class as everyone else, which means that they should prove they have charitable or educational activities, (Preaching the bible doesn’t count), and force them to open their books.

I’m not being unfair, I’m just asking for simple justice. I’m asking for holding up the laws of the nation. I’m asking for no discrimination. I’m asking that the Constitution of the United States be duly and rightfully honored and nothing else.

Write to your Mayor, Governor, Congressmen, Senators, and President to either act on this issue or punish them by your VOTE. Their job and duty is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same, not to their god – any god. And this is your duty to your country as well. Either, be a true American and uphold your Constitution, or take down the red, white and blue flag off your porch and piss on it while you are at it.