J. Fartlington Poopnagel:
> There is no valid reason in the 21st century for ANY church or religion
> to NOT PAY TAXES!
As a German I may well miss some im****tant details, but for all I know
you're right. If they make money they'll have to pay taxes, period.
Alternatively, a kind of balance between financial advantage and
obligation
to use that advantage in a non-selfish manner may be nice too. Kind of
like
the companies et cetera over here we call "gemeinnützig", for example the
Red Cross et cetera. Dunno what English word would fit best, sorry.
For those who don't know what "gemeinnützig" means, these do enjoy certain
priviledges of the financial sort... but they also have to invest almost
all their earnings into the functioning and expanding of their companies.
It is not allowed to make any significant winnings for their chairman or
board or whatever. So the Red Cross for example is allowed to build new
hospitals or purchase new emergency ambulances, but if one of their
high-ranking bureaucrats wants a villa at the Spanish coast... she'd
better
keep her day job, or win the lottery. ;)
Gee, how much better would the US be off if, say, the televangelists had
to
invest 99 % of their earnings into the public school system? *eg*
--
"To his friend a man a friend shall prove, and gifts with gifts requite;
But men shall mocking with mockery answer, and fraud with falsehood meet."
(The Poetic Edda)
Must have been written with fundies in mind...
My personal judgment of monotheism:
http://www.carcosa.de/nojebus
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