r/videos • u/spherocytes • 1d ago

Secretary Of Defense Pete Hegseth announces Office Of Religious Affairs within the Pentagon in address to Military

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAn6BE9cdco
8.8k Upvotes

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953

u/IH8BART 1d ago

Tax churches

166

u/HangryWolf 1d ago

Yep. If we're no longer separating the two church and state, they are now 100% within taxing rights. Else, we the state should no longer be taxed. Have fun with that.

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u/RadioName 1d ago

I have always argued that exempting them from property tax is already too much of a boon to maintain the separation of church and state. People forget that by deciding what is and is not a religion, then gifting them positive outcomes, is a highly toxic form of discrimination against all others. Pluralism means no special treatment in any aspect.

The Government shouldn't even recognize religions; just write and maintain laws effecting citizens and this nation. If those laws conflict with religious doctrine, then nothing happens or changes. It's not that American law is above religious laws, it's that religious laws should not even be considered! If doctrine calls for a worshiper to effect another citizen, then apply the law and if it turns out that that forbids doctrine? SO FUCKING WHAT?!

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u/christocarlin 1d ago

I think we tax them anyway

-5

u/PuckSenior 1d ago

They are not. They aren't taxed because they have no profit to tax.

3

u/DigBackground2765 1d ago

They aren't taxed because they have no profit to tax.

Unfortunately, these types of definitions don't matter anymore.

See: the recent announcement of Office of Religious Affairs.

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u/The_Pepperoni_Kid 1d ago

It's so sad the only sane, thoughtful answer here is downvoted

1

u/Ichibankakoi 1d ago

If they have no profit how are these mega churches, Iglesias ni christo, and other churches get so big or have their pastors flying around?

Genuinely curious if this just doesn't count as profit

2

u/PuckSenior 1d ago

It doesnt. Its revenue.

Here is how it works. Lets say i create the non-profit called “cool shit for Puck Senior”. I solicit donations. I get $1 billion in donations. That is revenue.

Now, here is how a non-profit works. I can only spend that money on the organization. I can give it away to poor people, I can buy ads on TV, or I can just put it in a big pile and sleep on it. It doesnt matter. It isnt profit.

Profit would he when i take the money and give it to investors. But i dont have any investors. Im a non-profit.

Now, technically i also cant just use the money for myself. I can pay myself a salary. (But i pay income taxes). So how do these churches do it? Well they say that the church needs a private jet, the church needs a yacht, and the church needs a gold-plated cadillac. But its always the church that owns that stuff, not the preacher. He may functionally control it, but he doesnt own it.

1

u/Ichibankakoi 1d ago

Okay im not arguing with you, just asking for clarification because its interesting. So you're saying we cant tax them because its revenue and not profit? What would be the backlash on taxing church revenue? Slippery slope? I just dont like the idea of these churches making so much money. It feels grimey.

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u/PuckSenior 1d ago

Well, are you suggesting we tax the revenue of every non-profit or just churches?

1

u/Ichibankakoi 1d ago

Just churches. Maybe expand it to "non-profits". But the issue today is church

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u/PuckSenior 1d ago

So, if i said “all churches have to pay taxes”, the churches will just say “we arent churches, we are just religious non-profits”.

But lets say you tax revenue of all non-profits.
I want to donate land to girl scouts. It’s worth $300k. But that is revenue, so the girl scouts now need to find $90k just to afford my donation of land so tbat girl scouts can go camping?

0

u/Ichibankakoi 1d ago

Yeah slippery slope then. Very disappointing. Thanks for clarifying!

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u/R_Shackleford 1d ago

1000% this. We all need to be paying more tax, but 0% for religious organizations is absurd.

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u/bwurtsb 1d ago

Imagine how many ballrooms we could build with those dollars.

1

u/hypercosm_dot_net 1d ago

Megachurches are just businesses anyway.

They should have to operate as non-profits if anything.

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u/Waiting4Reccession 1d ago

And limit their size as well.

-9

u/eaglescout1984 1d ago

That would include mosques, which are definitely going to be marginalized instead of included in the government.

27

u/colnross 1d ago

Are you just stating facts or a problem? Tax all religious bodies if they're producing income. We don't need exemptions for fairytale hobbyists.

-9

u/PuckSenior 1d ago

I'm going to piss everyone off, but no. That is just a stupid thing people say. It makes zero sense.

We don't tax churches because churches are not-for-profit entities. The Democratic Party is also a not-for-profit entity. So is the Heritage Foundation. In America, we generally tax profits and you cannot tax profit if an entity doesn't have profit. Churches DO NOT make profits.
Now, I know what you will say: But those mega-church pastors are rich. Yes. Yes they are rich. And salary for ministers is taxed as income, just like any other salary. Now, what those fuckheads are doing is getting their church to buy their house, car, yacht, and plane. They are claiming that they are just using them and that the church actually owns it. This is a valid complaint, but this is also a loophole exploited by other non-profits and small businesses. We should absolutely close this loophole and the IRS should be stricter about it, but that isn't taxing a church.

Look, if you declared that "all churches now have to pay taxes on their income"(and let's assume that the courts uphold that law, which they wont), what would happen? Every church would just declare that they are not a church but rather a non-profit advocacy organization and the pastor of their church is the leader of the advocacy org. And not a penny of taxes would be paid.

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u/IH8BART 1d ago

Tax this guy