Random Politics & Religion #00

There are a few attractive women where I work but due feminism anything besides hi is sexual harassment.

So what you get is a culture of men and women that could be friends even more than friends. But are afraid to even acknowledge the opposite sex exists. Perfect way to make you motivated for work !

Which is why churches should pay taxes !

Oh good, just let me impose additional taxes on you that you aren't paying right now simply because I don't like the way that you view things. Clearly it's no big deal to you.

You know what you're being punished for...

I'm only half-assedly paying attention to this discussion but I dont believe that is the motivation being presented here. So why are taxes punishment when a church has to pay them?

So, churches should stay the same size forever? I don't get what you're trying to imply. If you have the followers, why wouldn't you use donations to expand your meeting places to accompany them?

Evangelical mega-churches make me queasy and I would hate to have to sit through a service at one (for a number of reasons), but I don't expect them to hold a meeting with thousands of people in a shack because heaven forbid they use the money to expand.

I have no idea what this has to do with taxes. Would taxes magically stop them?

How did you get worshiping in a "shack" from "minimalist"?

Because enforcing minimalism is pretty much impossible, so it sounded about as crazy.

Because enforcing minimalism is pretty much impossible, so it sounded about as crazy.

Like I said earlier just form your own religion. And use the money saved in taxes as you please. All you need is a charisma above 8 if Fallout taught me anything !

Just curious how it's money saved? The people volunteered their own money, that was already taxxed multiple times, to help the church. Then liberals want to turn around and tax it yet again?

All organizations should be taxxed or none of them should. Regardless of what they stand for. Equality.

Just curious how it's money saved? The people volunteered their own money, that was already taxxed multiple times, to help the church. Then liberals want to turn around and tax it yet again?

All organizations should be taxxed or none of them should. Regardless of what they stand for. Equality.

Yea but sometimes being in a cult is better than wishing you were in a cult !

You want us to start all over at the beginning because you're too lazy to backread? Yeah, no.

I don't know how you interpreted what I said into that. It's a hard question, I guess.

It's an easy question. The fact that you don't already know the answer is what baffles me. Either that or you're baiting, and neither of which are worth my time to answer for someone who by his own admission hasn't been paying much attention.

An African-American church in South Carolina that was burned down by the Ku Klux Klan 20 years ago caught fire on Tuesday, the local Post and Courier newspaper reported.

The fire at Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in the city of Greeleyville comes amid a rash of fires that have erupted at black churches across the U.S. south, at least two of which have already been declared arsons by fire investigators.

It also comes roughly two weeks after a white gunman opened fire inside the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston some 65 miles (105 km) away.

Mark Keel, chief of the State Law Enforcement Division, told the newspaper that the blaze was still burning on Tuesday night. He said the cause of the fire could not be determined until the flames were out.

He told the newspaper that while lightning from a recent storm system in the area may have sparked the blaze, he was troubled by the recent spate of church fires in the region.

"Certainly, I think we all are concerned about those things," he told the newspaper.

The FBI said on Monday they were investigating a spate of fires at predominantly black churches across the southern United States, although so far no link between the incidents has been established.

Tuesday's fire would be at least the seventh blaze since the shooting, an attack that stoked an ongoing national outcry over race relations and a renewed civil rights movement following several high-profile police killings of unarmed African-American men over the past year.

I don't get it either. Apart from "punishing" any non-profit by making them pay taxes, what is so special about churches? What public service do they perform that secular non-profits don't?

You don't get it, but you practically answered the question? It would be singling them out. The conversation isn't about how non-profits should pay taxes, it's about churches. Why is it about churches and not other non-profits? Because you don't like them. For most of you guys it hasn't even been about holding them to the same standards as non-profits, as it's all about singling them out for a tax. For the extremists, it's even about singling out the ones specifically that don't endorse gay marriage. It's punishing them for their views. If you can't see it now, you're blind.

Uh, no, it would be holding them to the same standards secular non-profits are and would be held to.

Seriously, your assertion is that treating churches the same as everyone else is singling them out because... reasons.

I'll give you a visualization. Non-profit A is a secular organization that sets up adoptions. Non-profit B is a religious organization that sets up adoptions. Why is it singling the religious one out by requiring them to adhere to the same standards as the secular one? This isn't the IRS sitting at the end of the pew and taking 30% out of the collection plate.

When they have a chance to harm it, they suddenly take great interest.