So how do we fund the government? Even if you kill all the so-called liberal programs, what do we do for military, police, fire, streets, roads, etc., etc.?
So how do we fund the government? Even if you kill all the so-called liberal programs, what do we do for military, police, fire, streets, roads, etc., etc.?
I could live with this view.
Before I tax churches in any form though, I'm going to go through the professional sports teams and other fake non-profits like a buzzsaw ...
I say we tax the rich.
The government would do so much better with all that church money than what the churches do. 
Those evil mega Churches! What about the micro churches? Can't they be evil too?
History of bad behavior? The Stalinist purges? Killing fields of Cambodia? Hitler and the Jews? Are those the bad religious extremists to whom you refer?
Those evil mega Churches! What about the micro churches? Can't they be evil too? History of bad behavior? The Stalinist purges? Killing fields of Cambodia? Hitler and the Jews? Are those the bad religious extremists to whom you refer?
Lets double the taxes on all our politicians and wait a couple years for some new ideas.
How do you define "profit" for a church? I suspect a lot of people don't realize everything a church does. I'll give you an example based on my knowledge of the Church of the Nazarene. It's a 100+ year old protestant evangelical denomination, numbering over 2.1 million members in over 26,000 congregations in 156 countries worldwide.
Our local congregation numbers about 125 attenders. Not sure what the actual "registered" membership is. We have the typical bills:
- Paid staff (in our case: Pastor, PT admin, PT janitor and one PT childcare worker)
- Utilities (electricity, water, gas, internet; phones are VOIP)
- Mortgage (Not sure how much we owe on our 4-year-old building)
We have expenses like postage; office equipment maintenance; office supplies; batteries for sound equipment; etc. We have a CCLI license to allow us to use the music we play and sing.
We also have expenses for things like Vacation Bible School supplies. The programming materials alone are usually a couple of hundred dollars. Then you need to buy the "stuff" you need to pull off the programming.
As a local congregation, we also support the denomination. We have a annually budgeted amount to pay based on our attendance. These funds go to
- District operations (think diocese. The church I attend is part of the Northeast OK District, which has 50 churches)
- Denomination education system - the COTN has 53 undergraduate and graduate institutions like Southern Nazarene University across the world
- Nazarene Missions International - funds the missions arm of the church. NMI raises funds for things like missionary salaries, Work & Witness Projects and Nazarene Compassionate Ministries
- Nazarene Youth International - a missions arm that focuses on the 14-25 age group
- SDMI - Sunday School Discipleship Ministries International
- Pensions & Benefits - A financial support arm for ministers, missionaries, and church-employed laypersons
- World Evangelism Fund - Full-time missionaries (excluding volunteers) in the Church of the Nazarene receive a monthly paycheck based on a standard amount plus a cost-of-living adjustment. Missionaries also receive medical insurance (see Missionary Health Care) a pension provision, and other items (such as housing and travel costs). That comes from WEF.
So what do you consider "for profit" out of that?
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