David Miner, long-time LGBT and civil rights activist, Thursday unleashed his thoughts on religious tax exemptions — thoughts shared by a great many, including me.
“This nation is facing an active concerted campaign to have a Christian version of Sharia law imposed on all of us (like it or not…) with active campaigns to create a set of laws forcing those that oppose them to live under their Christian principles,” writes Mixner, in, “Stop Tax Exemptions For Religious Organizations.”
I trust he’ll forgive me for reprinting his entire statement here:
No matter how they tempt to hide it or sugarcoat it, the Mormon Church has poured millions and millions of dollars into the battle to fight marriage equality. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church has directly contacted public officials warning them of the political consequences if they support equality for LGBT citizens. The most recent attempt was Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’ Brien calling Maryland’s Catholic Governor Martin O’Malley warning him not to support the drive for marriage equality in the state. And we here in New York are all aware of the very public disagreement over this issue by Catholic Governor Andrew Cuomo and Archbishop Timothy Dolan.
Many religious institutions long ago crossed the fine line between spiritual beliefs and direct public lobbying. Some definitely don’t even make an attempt to hide their brazen use of tax-subsidized dollars to fight to make their personal spiritual beliefs mandatory for all other American citizens. This nation is facing an active concerted campaign to have a Christian version of Sharia law imposed on all of us (like it or not…) with active campaigns to create a set of laws forcing those that oppose them to live under their Christian principles.
In these harsh economic times, why not lift the tax exemptions from all religious institutions? They are a lingering result of policy created decades ago. The First Amendment has been used as reason that a government should not tax religious institutions. However isn’t that same amendment the reason that my tax dollars should not allow them to free up their tax free dollars to fight to take away my freedom? The time has long passed for these institutions to be given a free economic pass from the citizens of America so they can attempt to mandate that their personal interpretations of the Bible become law of the land.
I couldn’t agree more. Tax the churches. Tax the synagogues. Tax the mosques. Remove all the tax exemptions from religious institutions. If corporations are people, why shouldn’t the corporate religions have to pay taxes too We can’t afford to continue to subsidize religion any more. Not from a financial perspective, and not from a civil rights perspective either.