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0 pointskrapp3y ago0 comments

Its basis is that taxation is a form of coercion, and government having the ability to coerce or even persecute religious organizations through taxation would violate the separation of church and state.

I personally think the incestuous menage-a-trois between corporate interests, the Republican party and Conservative Christianity is a bigger threat to liberty, but whatever.

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VLM3y ago

Somehow I don't think abolishment of the Johnson Amendment would result in less religious involvement in politics.

It's a very large interconnected system.

The main effect of eliminating the tax free status for religious institutions would be a push toward charity involvement where instead of the charity work being part of the church, the church would be a part of the charity (think basement soup kitchens and the like). Instead of having "St Mary's church and Soup Kitchen" you'd have a big legal shuffle that accomplishes nothing resulting in org titles like "St Mary's Soup Kitchen and Related Worship Services"

Unless they're proposing complete elimination of all tax-exempt status for all orgs including charities and similar orgs. Which would be interesting to think about but probably impractical?

jjtheblunt3y ago

I hear you, and suspect generalizing to not only one party or religious faction still works.

krappOP3y ago

It does, they both have to pander to the same interests and win the South, but between the two the Republicans more openly integrate religion into their core identity.

Which in a way makes them more sincere than the Democrats, whose embrace of secularism and leftism so often seems like half-measures compared to what the other party is willing to commit to.

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