Sales Tax

[Lotan]

Here's a recent story from the Christian media...

"(AgapePress) - Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based organization that defends the constitutional rights of Christians, has filed a brief with the State Supreme Court defending a law that provides a sales tax exemption for Bibles and other religious publications.

Recently, the Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida sued the State Department of Revenue claiming Florida law that grants sales tax exemption for Bibles and other religious publications violates the constitution's Establishment clause. Liberty Counsel President Mat Staver says the Wiccans paid sales tax on a Satanic "Bible" and, instead of asking for a refund, sued the state."

Is there any good reason that some books should be tax exempt and not others? Who decides what qualifies as a 'religious' publication and what criteria do they use?
If I were to claim, as some Christian polemicists assert, that 'evolution' is my 'religion' could I then demand tax-exempt status for "Origin of Species"? Exemption for one book and not for another amounts to a tangible state endorsement of religious ideas at the expense of other points of view. This gives superstition an unfair advantage.
The only fair solution would be equal tax status for ALL books, regardless of their content. Not only that but this principle should be extended to churches and other 'religious' organizations and media.

[McCulloch]

Leaving the question unanswered, who determines which books are holy?

The people who register as religious corporations for tax exempt status, as now.

So anyone who can meet the government requirements to be a religious corporation should get the right to declare which books should be tax exempt. So, if I can convince my local Unitarian church to declare that all human writing is holy, then all books will be tax exempt by virtue of the First Amendment. Sweet.

Don't you know how American government works?

No. Do you?

[jcrawford]

You claimed that the Constitution prohibits tax on religion. It doesn't.

The FA prohibits the Feds from taxing religion, speech, the press and educational assemblies. Course, the individual states can.

We know that when an exemption is given the government needs a small army of administrators to police it.

We know that when the Feds have the power to tax everyone to death, they require a large army of tax-collectors to enforce it.

Why do we want the government to be adjudicating on what is a real religion and what is a scam.

We don't, and we don't have to tolerate that in America, since the only real religions here are those which were established here before the US was even dreamed of or founded.

And since all "real" religions are scams too, it is a both hopeless and thankless task.

If the US government can't determine what a "real" religion is though, how can you?

So, in sum, the effects of secular government are:

1) Corruption of the people and churches.
2) Bloating of the federal payroll.
3) Complexification of the tax code.
4) Creation of opprotunities for fraud.
5) Corruption of the concept of self-government, equal religious rights and representation, and everything else in the American Declaration of Independence from tyranny.

Yup!

[jcrawford]

Leaving the question unanswered, who determines which books are holy?

The people who register as religious corporations for tax exempt status, as now.

So anyone who can meet the government requirements to be a religious corporation should get the right to declare which books should be tax exempt. So, if I can convince my local Unitarian church to declare that all human writing is holy, then all books will be tax exempt by virtue of the First Amendment. Sweet.

All newspapers, books and educational institutions should be tax-exempt whether they are holy or not. Tax secular corporations to death, not religious people.

Don't you know how American government works?

No. Do you?

Yes. Corruptly and clandestinely.

[jcrawford]

I have to agree with the person that said no taxes on reading materials or food.

Boy do I feel bitchy.

Me too. No taxes on books or food!

Except for rich secularists and all politicians, of course.

[McCulloch]

Why do we want the government to be adjudicating on what is a real religion and what is a scam.

We don't, and we don't have to tolerate that in America, since the only real religions here are those which were established here before the US was even dreamed of or founded.

And the basis for this claim is ...
The United Church of Christ came into being in 1957
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod American denominational branch of Lutheranism; founded 1849
The Mormon Faith was founded by Joseph Smith Jr. (1806-1844)
Religion: Bahai, founded in 1863 in Iran
United Pentecostal Church International was founded in September, 1945 in St. Louis, Missouri
Disciples of Christ pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) A Christian denomination founded in 1809 that accepts the Bible as the only rule of....
Seventh-day Adventist Church was founded in the mid-19th century
This date marks the founding of the first Black Methodist Episcopal church in America in 1794

[juliod]

The FA prohibits the Feds from taxing religion, speech, the press and educational assemblies.

No it doesn't. There's no point in holdiong this discussion until you are clear on this point.

DanZ

[Cephus]

The FA prohibits the Feds from taxing religion, speech, the press and educational assemblies.

Pardon me while I roll around on the floor, laughing hysterically.

Would you mind quoting, verbatim, specifically where it says that?

[Cathar1950]

The FA prohibits the Feds from taxing religion, speech, the press and educational assemblies.

juliod wrote:

No it doesn't. There's no point in holdiong this discussion until you are clear on this point.

I agree, I do not see where the gov. can't tax religions institutions.
The FA seems to provide protection from both religion from gov. and gov. from religion and tax would be no more unconstitutional then tax on anything.
Is taxation on writing an impingement of the operation of free speech?
Who should pay taxes and on what?

jcrawford wrote:

So, in sum, the effects of secular government are:

1) Corruption of the people and churches.
2) Bloating of the federal payroll.
3) Complexification of the tax code.
4) Creation of opprotunities for fraud.
5) Corruption of the concept of self-government, equal religious rights and representation, and everything else in the American Declaration of Independence from tyranny.

Do you really believe a non-secular gov. would do better or different?
Now there has been a lot of religious gov.s tried. I don't think they faired that well.
What kind of gov. would you like?
It is a rhetorical question and I really don't want to know especially if it is in any way biblical in your interpretation.
I think you personally are much better off in a secular gov. that supports your rights as well as others.

[jcrawford]

Why do we want the government to be adjudicating on what is a real religion and what is a scam.

We don't, and we don't have to tolerate that in America, since the only real religions here are those which were established here before the US was even dreamed of or founded.

And the basis for this claim is ...
The United Church of Christ came into being in 1957
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod American denominational branch of Lutheranism; founded 1849
The Mormon Faith was founded by Joseph Smith Jr. (1806-1844)
Religion: Bahai, founded in 1863 in Iran
United Pentecostal Church International was founded in September, 1945 in St. Louis, Missouri
Disciples of Christ pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) A Christian denomination founded in 1809 that accepts the Bible as the only rule of....
Seventh-day Adventist Church was founded in the mid-19th century
This date marks the founding of the first Black Methodist Episcopal church in America in 1794

Are any of those churches or faiths not part of our monotheistic religion which was well-established in America long before the American Revolution? Don't they all function as One Nation Under God here?

[jcrawford]

The FA prohibits the Feds from taxing religion, speech, the press and educational assemblies.

No it doesn't. There's no point in holdiong this discussion until you are clear on this point.

DanZ

I am clear on this point. When the Christian states and the Christian people demanded that the Founding Christian Fathers write that "Congress shall make no law" respecting or prohibiting the rights of any of what follows, into their Bill of Rights, they meant it, and still do. That's why they added Amendments 9 and 10 - just as precaution and safe-keeping of their God-given rights.