Open letter to the crazed fundie fuckers

You know who you are.
As a woman, you have gone too far. You have come after my personal rights.
WHEN we have a Democratic Congress AND President...you better hold that Bible tightly...because I will not REST until your churches are taxed to the max. I will write my Congressmen daily, I will write every newspaper, and I will enlist the help of everyone I can get.
Say goodbye to those slick-haired silver-tongued child molesting preachers driving cadillacs that you worship MORE than you worship Jesus.
Just wait.
I'm COMING for you.

We need to get religion out of politics and public policy. x(

especially when their agenda is to influence our political system.

we did praise churches and priests when they were at the head of the line during the Civil Rights, during Vietnam, even providing sanctuary to refugees from El Salvador.

Churches are specifically prohibited by IRS rules from advocating for or against any particular candidate OR party. If they do that, they stand a chance of losing their charitable tax exempt status -- their 501(c)(3) status.

That charitable organization status means that contributions TO the organization are tax-deductible AND revenues aren't taxable.

If we TAX them, then they will all have the ability to turn themselves into little political action committees or 527's, whether they call themselves that or not.


Now, standing up for ISSUES, no matter what those issue are, is perfectly fine. They can advocate for (or against, presumably) civil rights, for or against abortion, for or against any issue of the day. Just not political parties OR candidates.

That doesn't mean they can't have a candidate forum -- they can, as long as ALL the candidates are invited and none are unduly advantaged or disadvantaged.

.. the majority didn't then, and damn sure don't now.

I've always thought that taxing churchs would be the ultimate separation of church and state. Tax exempt status for a religious organization is just too cozy with the government in my warped thinking.

I have always assumed that the "no taxes on churches" thing was to keep the ones that wre out of favor from being taxed out of existence (that's a rational explanation, even if it's not the real one), but you could accomplish the same thing by taxing them but making sure it was equitable.

fair share of municipal taxes, bless them. Pat Robertson makes about a half a billion a year. With no oversight. Amazing, no?

There is no reason churches shouldn't be taxed.

Time to tax ALL amusement parks.

We provide half of our building for the princely sum of a dollar a year to a local agency to use as their day office for helping to mainstream and re-house homeless families. The value of such commercial property in our city is slightly more than our congregation's annual budget, of which we contribute more than 10% to denominational and local charitable agencies. Our teeny tiny congregation also sent four members down to Mississippi for a weekn in January to help with Hurricane Katrina relief, and we're scheduled to send more folks down for another week in July. On Super Bowl Sunday, we packaged 947 soup packets for the local neighbors-helping-neighbors agency, providing a hot meal throughout the year for 10 persons a day, every day for the entire year. We march in the Gay Pride parade every year, participate in forums to advance stem cell research and universal health care. We write letters and postcards to elected officials about environmental concerns, and preserving ANWR from the oil companies.

But we'll stop doing that and close our doors so that you can celebrate a "victory" over some other people you don't like very much. Brilliant. What are you going to do to make up for that loss to our community?

with posters who are bent on hurting and hating religion at every possible turn. Same assholes different thread. It's too maddening to waste your effort on. Admittedly, I do, but I think I might be a masochist.

I hate religiosity. I hate churches being used as sacred covens for spreading their hate against women and minorities.
Go ahead and deny that it happens. I DARE you...if you can say that it doesn't, then I will accept you calling me an asshole.
Otherwise, you owe me an apology.

I seriously doubt it when I see people say, "oh every time I go to a church all they do is bash gays and women and other races." I've been to thirty or so different churches and hundreds upon hundreds of services in my life. I don't recall ONCE where anything like that was said by a priest, pastor, minister, preacher, etc. NOT ONCE. And no, they weren't unitarian churches either.

You can split hairs all day about what you hate and rationalise how you'll attack it, but you sure as hell aren't going to gain my respect or apologies doing so.

call an asshole?

"After baiting religious people, smugly state they fall short of their religious ideals."

Not falling for it.

And when churches use the bully pulpit to act as lobbyists, then they should be taxed.

Guess we will just have to turn to the masons, lions, red cross or 1000 other charitable organizations that are not based to changing the political spectrum. Nobody cares in what you believe in we all just care that most religious organizations force it down your throat.

We march in the Gay Pride parade every year, participate in forums to advance stem cell research and universal health care. We write letters and postcards to elected officials about environmental concerns, and preserving ANWR from the oil companies.

I think you are the only congregation that does this. I have been to 7 different theological organizations in the past 5 years and I’m not sure I have ever been to a service where the preacher wasn’t gay bashing.

But we're too poor and usually too busy to be tooting our own horn about what we do. I occasionally post in these kinds of threads just to give an alternative version of what a lot of congregations all over the country are up to. It doesn't make a dime's worth of difference to the broad-brushers, but I feel a little better speaking up.

Funny how people forget all the "faith-based" money that was given by our government to the churches to help the Katrina victims.
Only problem was--they would only help those that were members of their own faith.
If you were atheist or agnostic you were simply SOL.
I'm GLAD you do God's work--the problem is, too many churches don't. And if you disagree with that, you are in serious denial or haven't been to another church in too long.

After all, three of the smallest denominations in Christendom are the historic peace churches (Quakers, Mennonites and Church of the Brethren) that abhor violence and preach that all war is sin.

But quite a bit of our work for social justice (health care, gay rights, opposition to war, fair wages) could very well be considered "political" even though we follow the law and don't endorse any parties or candidates, just like any other issue-oriented group that holds non-profit status.

are designed to help and not hurt. In the truest sense...God Bless You for caring for those that many overlook.

I have been reading up on John Hagee's Christians United for Israel and his influence on bush. This Hagee freak believes the way to bring about Armageddon is to attack Iran. Last July he stated, "The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West... a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation <...> and Second Coming of Christ."

but the idea of John Hagee's fat ass rotating eternally on Beezlebub's Showtime Rotisserie causes me to wish that his evil and misdeeds will be punished in that imaginary place...

Chasing these deluded assholes into their own back wards churches and nailing the door shut and catching the damn thing on fire.

I am sickened by fundies who want to dominate the world and force everyone to live and be as THEY are.
Bullies with bibles need to be stomped into silence .

... but here's a kick. Exactly.