Court says Wiccans must pay taxes, too (Florida)

Posted on Thu, Mar. 10, 2005

Court says Wiccans must pay taxes, too

Cooperative sought sales-tax exemption

By James L. Rosica
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER


The witches may have finally lost their four-year struggle for a state sales-tax exemption.

The Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida, based in Orlando, sued the Florida Department of Revenue on Halloween 2000, saying the state had wrongly denied it a tax exemption.

A panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal this week ruled in favor of the state, upholding Circuit Judge Kevin Davey's previous ruling.

Appellate Judges Edwin B. Browning Jr. and Ricky Polston decided the organization legally could not pursue the case because - paradoxically - it's a religious group that would benefit from a tax exemption.
(snip/...)

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/11095402.htm

And nice avatar, btw ;)

How exactly is that?

Wicca is a reincarnation of several pagan groups, mostly Druidic. While it might not be accurate to say it is the "grandparent" of modern religion, its roots, like the roots of all major world religions, lie heavily in Paganism.

as it is the "reincarnation" of ancient pagan religions.

I think a better characterization of it is an attempt to recast ancient pagan traditions within the modern occult tradition.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I think it's great.

I think you state it in a very good way. Although, "occult" usually raises flags with people, it has never bothered me. :) BTW...what is OTO? I am racking my brain trying to guess this one...my brain is not responding! :)

I would say that Gardner adopted some Thelemic elements, with an addition of Celtic sprinklings and some good ole fashioned "Hedge Witchery" added in. That's how I characterize my religion.

Like human sacrifice. (Although you'll find that in EVERY culture, at some point.)

Caesar said that, as far as I know, no Druids of Northern Europe sacrificed people. Its what we would today call propaganda, the ONLY evidence of Druids sacrificing people is Julius Caesar's writings and the writings of his Roman contemporaries. Though I could be wrong.

See the 'peat bog people' of english swamps for the preserved bodies.

But, that doesn't mean it was during Ceasar's time...

http://www.jamesmdeem.com/bogbodies.reviews.htm
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/wilson/ant304/projects/projects97/dentep/dentep.html
and
http://www.digitalmedievalist.com/faqs/sacrific.html

Sort of, read the sites, very interesting thank you. Though who knows if Druids themselves were involved, of course, I'm no Druid, have to ask one of them about it.

A masonic derived order that broke from the main lodge. It initiates men as well as women and practices phallic sex magick. Aleister Crowley joined the organization and promptly remade it in the image of his Thelemic philosophy.

A man never to be taken seriously

nt

I believe he described himself in those terms, though to be honest, he had little direct impact on Wicca as a religion.

but that doesn't necessarily devalue everything he did. Egotistical showmen and women make the world go round.

to say the least. Its not like I can't take him seriously or anything, his personality was, how do you say it? Unique. :)

to the Wiccan paganistic practices. Paganism is the root
religion for Western theologies. King Constadine transformed
many Pagan rituals when he enshrined Christianity in the late
380's AD. Funny, thing was, Constadine refused himself to be converted and fought Christianity until his deathbed.

about Christianity because it offered the potential to unify his empire under one faith. It was a political choice, despite what the myths say.

his own conversion to Christianity. Constadine stole
heavily his ideas from paganism for the new xiantity.

just as ignorant.

It is a young religion with a fair amount of nice ideals.

It just needs to make a few adjustments... like admitting that just because they base some of their beliefs on ancient beliefs from select parts of the worls that their religion is only a bit more than 50 years old officially with an arguable 30 years of 'developement'.

Since... if the Christian religion were to be compared then they would have to track the jewish, babylonian and other religions they stole their stories from.

Giligamesh = Noah Etc etc etc

It's just like Jack and the Beanstalk / Tower of Babylon and many others.

And you can understand our pain as Wiccans. We have our idiots too, especially "Know it alls".

I decided after getting a taste of many of the world's religions that I was going to follow a more secular lifestyle, far far away from the fluffbunnies of self deception that remind me of far too many others that follow the wade wide eyed ignorance and baffle me with their inability to even gain a basic verbal understanding of something from a verbal explanation.

As my grandfather was so fond of saying to my grandmother, "You need to tolerate idiots, after all, it's still murder if you kill them." Usually this was to disarm her after she had dealt with people who no longer lived up to her 1940/50 standards.

How messed up is that? What do they do with those store-front churches? Sounds like economic and religious discrimination, but then again, it's Florida. Fairness seems to be a lost cause.

and not just a cult.

it's naked rugby, I can't see a real problem getting pagans to get a team together....

/removing tongue from cheek....

Pcat

Just kidding, aren't wiccans peaceful?

Still, the idea of them cursing these judges...
(and how different is it then Pat Robertson praying for cancer on liberal Supreme Court justices?)

I think Robertson was praying for the more liberal members to get cancer. Guess god got confused. Rehnquist got it instead.

Wouldn't it be interesting to question Pat Robertson about what he thinks went wrong!



Pat's Deep Thoughts

(talking about apartheid South Africa) "I think 'one man, one vote,' just unrestricted democracy, would not be wise. There needs to be some kind of protection for the minority which the white people represent now, a minority, and they need and have a right to demand a protection of their rights."--Pat Robertson, "The 700 Club," 3/18/92

"The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." -- Pat Robertson, fundraising letter, 1992

"I am bound by the laws of the United States and all 50 states...I am not bound by any case or any court to which I myself am not a party...I don't think the Congress of the United States is subservient to the courts...They can ignore a Supreme Court ruling if they so choose."--Pat Robertson, Washington Post, June 27,1986)

http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/7027/quotes.html

I know some doozies. :hippie:

If govt is in the business of giving tax breaks to churches, then it is also in the position of deciding which religions are valid. Problematic in a supposedly free and open society, to say the least.

And what's this with Pat Robertson praying that people get cancer? Talk about evil-doers...

that did not pass in 1980.

It was going to strip Wicca and other 'occult' religions of tax exempt status.
But it never passed because it was widely presumed to be unconstitutional.

I assume IRL it goes back to the Constitutional Convention and discussion of the First Amendment.

;-)

of the cult of the dead ron hubbard. wouldn`t want them to blow their e-meters....ya- they are tax exempt-they are a religion

WTF? You're standing on it, asshole.

:mad:

in the United States, as long as one religion is exempt, ALL should be exempt. The building requirement is stupid and discriminatory to say the least. BTW: Wicca has been a recognized religion since at least 1984.

Now they have to remove ALL tax exemptions for ALL religions.

It doesn't need to be anything fancy.

There is a lot of cheap land in Florida.

Maybe it would be enough if the Unitarians leased them a space for $1/month?

regularly in Unitarian Universalist meetinghouses. They have an official organization pagans can choose to belong to if they want, called CUUPS = Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans. The group I hang out with is called the Earth Spirit Circle, and meets at the local UU here. It recognizes all earth based spirituality paths, and we do loosely wiccan and/or Native American type rituals, including celebrating the turning of the year and the cycle of the moon. Wiccan army chaplain and prison chaplain programs are in place, so it is recognized by the Federal Government as an established religion.

Jews and Native Americans to hold Spiritual Retreat Together July 13-18
Topic started by IanDB1 on Feb-25-05 04:35 PM (1 replies)
Last modified by ayeshahaqqiqa on Feb-26-05 09:28 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=214&topic_id=11386

Ah, Florida, why am I not surprised by this decision. A few weeks ago I looked up their rules for clergy being able to marry people because my godson was thinking about having me marry him and his fiancee in Florida and the statute actually said any Minister of the Gospel was able to marry people legally in Florida. I didn't have access to the annotated version of Florida's legal code so I couldn't check and see how rabbis or imams were authorized, and I'm sure there is something there about it, but still "Minister of the Gospel"? Oy

If one religion is tax-exempt, all are, although I would prefer that none were. Having a building doesn't make you a church. Having a congregation does.

to start a church with an "Established" God? That is wrong. This will allow anyone to be next now. HEY, BROWNING, take a GOOD look At the Catholic Chruch, THE CRYSTAL CATHEDERAL....:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

Watch this issue closely, folks. If the good guys play their cards right, this could wind up in the Supreme Court and force a judicial examination of all this "faith-based" favoritism.

If government is going to start deciding what is a religion and what isn't, the rules will need to be spelled out very clearly.