Religion Costs a Buck-O-Five....

So I am sitting at the bar reading the paper last night. It was a long day and I wasn't in a particularly good mood. There was an editorial commentary examining if we should be taxing NCAA sports. If you aren't aware, they are currently tax exempt due to the institution being a school. However, the article made some very good points about the colleges making "big money" off of the sporting events like their football programs.

I find all of this to be a good and healthy debate. But....I think if people really want to recover monies that are "lost" to non-profit institutions then they need to look at Churches. First off, the separation of church and state is not a literal separation and people need to realize that is an unrealistic expectation. The separation of church and state was to prevent the influence of politics via voting and other channels from non-profit organizations. The reality is that it happens anyway and nobody does a damned thing about it.

So if we push that aside let's examine a few things. You earn you money and then if you are a good Christian you give 10% of your gross (not the net, the GROSS) to the church every year. This doesn't take into consideration any other donations that you make. If I remember correctly that is tax-free. The church also gets it from you, again, tax-free. So now we have a funnel of money going into the church that the government doesn't get anything out of.

Now the church is also allowed to act like any other corporation in that it can buy and sell goods, trade stocks, broker real estate, etc. And....of course.....tax free. Did you know that the single largest wealthiest entity in the world is the Roman Catholic church?? Yet, we get no tax benefit from them.

Churches may claim non-profit, but the reality is that they utilize our civil resources just like any other organization and they rake in BILLIONS of dollars. Yet, nobody would consider taxing the church, would they? Nobody that wants to get re-elected anyway....