ShopDreamUp AI ArtDreamUp
Deviation Actions
Literature Text
Religion & Politics
"If religious groups want to get into politics, they should pay taxes"
I concur!! Why should My tax dollars go to their right to belittle Me...
Politics and Religion… The religion within politics.. the politics within religion..
Many religious people claim to be so patriotic and always worrying about what the president is doing with the tax money, well since there are about half a million religious buildings in this country [Churches, Mosque/Temple, Synagogues, etc etc] all of which get tax exemptions why not put your money where your mouth is and stop being a burden on the government.
From what I got from the census website there are more than 300K religious buildings in this country alone, this includes, Churches [Christian and catholic], Mosque/Temples, Synagogues, and many other variations of faiths. So you take the average of these place and you get between 10-20K a year in tax exemptions. So that is let us just say 300K times 10K if we just use the minimum, that is still billions of dollars of tax money "wasted" on these places each year.
I am not saying faith is a bad thing, I am not saying you should be ridiculed or belittled if you have faith, yet these burdens do not just evaporate into thin air. When they say "tax exemptions" for the most part this burden is generally on the citizens who's paying for such things.
I mean why do not tax exemptions go to big businesses and such, why? Because they make billions and trillions of dollars per year and can afford it. But wait, churches/Mosque/Synagogues etc in this country do take in billions of dollars in donations, which is basically free money, not as if you are a business, and a large percentage of your money must go back into the products or whatever it is that you sell. If they just try a little harder to raise money for their places, such as seeking big name donations, to support them, doing drives and such which they can donate to places to get tax write offs and such, which would save them all thousands of bucks a year.
Not to even mention… oh wait I am about to mention, that 22% of Americans classify as Atheist/Agnostic/Spiritualist and other things not usually associated with Theist places of worship, yet are still taxed to support a faith that is not their own. I am an Atheist, and I may be biased to such things as to tax someone to uphold a belief system that they personally do not subscribe to.
Yes I know that this country is supposedly flies under the façade of religious tolerance, yes I know this country was built upon being tolerant to others faith and beliefs, hm, how exactly is being tolerant to tax those who do not subscribe to a particular faith or whatever, in order to support a particular faith or group of faiths.
I think if a faith wish to occupy large spaces, and such that they should have to pay for that space themselves them selves, I mean if you're going to be of a faith, you should live by the book of that faith, and for the most part, I do not recall any faith saying, YOU MUST WORSHIP ME IN A HUGE building for Me to hear you, so if you can not worship your god or whatever in small shack and still keep your members I believe that says more about their lack of faith than their needing to have such outlandish things such as a large buildings, and stuff like that that we all have to pay for whether we subscribe to that faith or not.
Okay, I guess My mind has no more to say or simply ran out of gas… So I shall conclude this post here.
As I Said, this submission was not meant to bash any faith, nor did I bash anyone's faith, yet merely questioning some of the correlations between faith and politics. I mean there shall never be for the most part an open Atheist, or non main stream faith person elected to an important position within this country for the most part because the majority of Americans do subscribe to a certain faith and are generally fearful of what they do not understand or may see as an opposing view or faith.
"If religious groups want to get into politics, they should pay taxes"
I concur!! Why should My tax dollars go to their right to belittle Me...
Politics and Religion… The religion within politics.. the politics within religion..
Many religious people claim to be so patriotic and always worrying about what the president is doing with the tax money, well since there are about half a million religious buildings in this country [Churches, Mosque/Temple, Synagogues, etc etc] all of which get tax exemptions why not put your money where your mouth is and stop being a burden on the government.
From what I got from the census website there are more than 300K religious buildings in this country alone, this includes, Churches [Christian and catholic], Mosque/Temples, Synagogues, and many other variations of faiths. So you take the average of these place and you get between 10-20K a year in tax exemptions. So that is let us just say 300K times 10K if we just use the minimum, that is still billions of dollars of tax money "wasted" on these places each year.
I am not saying faith is a bad thing, I am not saying you should be ridiculed or belittled if you have faith, yet these burdens do not just evaporate into thin air. When they say "tax exemptions" for the most part this burden is generally on the citizens who's paying for such things.
I mean why do not tax exemptions go to big businesses and such, why? Because they make billions and trillions of dollars per year and can afford it. But wait, churches/Mosque/Synagogues etc in this country do take in billions of dollars in donations, which is basically free money, not as if you are a business, and a large percentage of your money must go back into the products or whatever it is that you sell. If they just try a little harder to raise money for their places, such as seeking big name donations, to support them, doing drives and such which they can donate to places to get tax write offs and such, which would save them all thousands of bucks a year.
Not to even mention… oh wait I am about to mention, that 22% of Americans classify as Atheist/Agnostic/Spiritualist and other things not usually associated with Theist places of worship, yet are still taxed to support a faith that is not their own. I am an Atheist, and I may be biased to such things as to tax someone to uphold a belief system that they personally do not subscribe to.
Yes I know that this country is supposedly flies under the façade of religious tolerance, yes I know this country was built upon being tolerant to others faith and beliefs, hm, how exactly is being tolerant to tax those who do not subscribe to a particular faith or whatever, in order to support a particular faith or group of faiths.
I think if a faith wish to occupy large spaces, and such that they should have to pay for that space themselves them selves, I mean if you're going to be of a faith, you should live by the book of that faith, and for the most part, I do not recall any faith saying, YOU MUST WORSHIP ME IN A HUGE building for Me to hear you, so if you can not worship your god or whatever in small shack and still keep your members I believe that says more about their lack of faith than their needing to have such outlandish things such as a large buildings, and stuff like that that we all have to pay for whether we subscribe to that faith or not.
Okay, I guess My mind has no more to say or simply ran out of gas… So I shall conclude this post here.
As I Said, this submission was not meant to bash any faith, nor did I bash anyone's faith, yet merely questioning some of the correlations between faith and politics. I mean there shall never be for the most part an open Atheist, or non main stream faith person elected to an important position within this country for the most part because the majority of Americans do subscribe to a certain faith and are generally fearful of what they do not understand or may see as an opposing view or faith.
Suggested Collections
Featured in Groups
To think, this whole submission came about when I was going through My photobucket pictures and happen to find a photo that said "If religious groups want to get into politics, they should pay taxes"
This submission is not to discuss being tolerant of ones faith, or of what one believes or doesn't believe per se, though I know it may arise, but it is merely what was on My mind at the time.
I am an Atheist, and while I do respect others faiths or beliefs, I do believe there is nothing wrong in questioning them.
This submission is not to discuss being tolerant of ones faith, or of what one believes or doesn't believe per se, though I know it may arise, but it is merely what was on My mind at the time.
I am an Atheist, and while I do respect others faiths or beliefs, I do believe there is nothing wrong in questioning them.
Comments112
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Taxes in the current system their in at the moment harm many financially, not just religious groups.
If we abolished income tax and a lot of other taxes, and increased VAT a bit, putting VAT on almost all purchaseable things, then we'd keep all the money we earn and have more incentive to spend. We'd only be taxed when we buy things, so we don't have to be forced to pay money for simply existing.
It would make the economy much better, as seen when you look at the global recession and how well Hong Kong fared through it.
As for religion and politics, I don't think religious groups, or anyone should be taxed on income. Also politics itself should probably be secular, as having the views of any one religion ruling those of another is just plain wrong.
If we abolished income tax and a lot of other taxes, and increased VAT a bit, putting VAT on almost all purchaseable things, then we'd keep all the money we earn and have more incentive to spend. We'd only be taxed when we buy things, so we don't have to be forced to pay money for simply existing.
It would make the economy much better, as seen when you look at the global recession and how well Hong Kong fared through it.
As for religion and politics, I don't think religious groups, or anyone should be taxed on income. Also politics itself should probably be secular, as having the views of any one religion ruling those of another is just plain wrong.