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While I typically do not respond to downvotes, this is one time I should, because downvoting someone for expressing reality, shooting the messenger, is not reas
by b112 4y ago
While I typically do not respond to downvotes, this is one time I should, because downvoting someone for expressing reality, shooting the messenger, is not reasonable.
This is not a case of "omg that guy supports the church!". This is a case of nation's founding documents, thousands of years of case law, court case after court case.
Even if every single (for example) American supported a change in the legal staus of churches/religions, it would take decades, for all state govenments, federal government, and hundreds of new pieces of legislation to be passed, to even get close to changing this status.
And that's with everyone on board.
And the same is true of the entire west.
- pjc50 4y ago> the same is true of the entire west. The status of churches (and especially what counts as a valid "church" or "religion", especially non-Christian ones!) varies across the Western world. There is no one approach.
- defrost 4y ago> And the same is true of the entire west. Yeah .. Nah. Religions aren't generally exempt from taxation or immune to prosecution in Australia. Those parts of a religions income that are used for charity can be exempt from taxation if the proper paperwork is filed and continues to operate in a transparent manner subject to audits, etc > To access income tax exemption, a registered religious institution must be a registered charity and endorsed by us as exempt from income tax. [1] Mind you Australia also recently and famously jailed a tier two 2iC Vatican official Cardinal George Pell so hardly a friend of the Church .. but a country generally agreed to be part of "the West" | "Global North" etc. [1] https://www.ato.gov.au/Non-profit/Getting-started/In-detail/Types-of-charities/Tax-concessions-for-ACNC-registered-religious-institutions/ https://www.ato.gov.au/Non-profit/Getting-started/In-detail/...