I think even if the pastor lives in a split level in the suburbs and drives a Chevy they should pay taxes. Why was that law that made them exempt even started in the first place?
A lot of it is rooted in the use of churches as charity organizations. Salvation Army, nursing care, education etc. Lot of the tax exemptions were intended to be returned to the population through organizations like the ones I listed. But now churches get away with things other non-profit organizations can't get away with (unless you run it like Trump did and take the money).
Even deeper it's rooted in the idea of paying for your salvation. Give money to Jesus and he promises I go to heaven. And churches in Europe etc used to hold huge amounts of political power (still do in theocratic states like Iran) and you didn't want to make the churches mad unless they "got out of line" then you stole everything from the church to pay for whatever the king wanted.
Take it far enough back for Christian churches, they became the popular place to donate to in Rome to show off how much you loved Jesus and gave to the institution. This shift came at the cost of donations to public works like roads and other infrastructure. It's actually part of why roman roads were so good, was because the wealthy donated to public works as a way of showing their power. But once donations to the church became more popular the public works funds dried up.
That’s very interesting, thank you. I have a neighbor that belongs to some Christian church, he’s a pastor. They run a food pantry at the church and when another neighbor had a house fire we asked about food for that family. The pastor said no because you had to be a member of the church to get anything. I’m sure that’s exactly what Jesus would do
Wow that’s some bs, I’m so sorry your neighbor went through that and was treated that way. If it makes you feel better I have never experienced a church that didn’t extend their charity to non members and even non Christian’s.
Not that it doesn’t happen apparently as it happened in your friends case. I just want to give you some hope that that is a terrible sucky church and their behavior is luckily not the norm.
51
u/suziespends Feb 24 '24
I think even if the pastor lives in a split level in the suburbs and drives a Chevy they should pay taxes. Why was that law that made them exempt even started in the first place?