6 ms·
It means that the donations to the church are generally tax deductible, and thus divert some money from the federal government to the church. And the church li
by skipkey 3y ago
It means that the donations to the church are generally tax deductible, and thus divert some money from the federal government to the church. And the church likely has many charitable activities.
- downrightmike 3y agoChurches are a complete scam.
- bigstrat2003 3y agoSome churches are, sure. Churches as an overall category are absolutely not a scam.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jessepasley 3y agoAre they more of a scam than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
- shortrounddev2 3y agoThere is no longer any war in Iraq or Afghanistan
- pauldenton 3y agoI'm sure the 7 billion dollars worth of equipment won't come back to bite us in the ass, like training Mujahideen between 1979-1989 to fight the Soviets and supplying them with Stingers did
- shortrounddev2 3y agoIn what way did arming the Mujahideen with Stingers bite us in the ass
- lmm 3y agoSome of them got used to shoot down our own planes, no?
- shortrounddev2 3y agoI've never heard of that happening
- lmm 3y agoWe don't always know what shot down a given aircraft, and one black-market MANPADS is much like another for most purposes, but from a search around at least one Chinook shot down in Afghanistan was thought to be by a Stinger left over from those days. Also spending a fair bit on a buyback program seems like an indication of regret.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoUnfortunately in North America at least the dominant churches are politically, ideologically and increasingly "theologically" onside with wars and other fairly awful things that the government is involved in. Grew up in an evangelical church in Alberta, Canada. It's just gotten more and more political and more and more explicitly right-wing ideological. That and a lot of the good work many churches do is strings-attached. That's not to say there isn't amazing charity work being done by many churches and some amazing Christian humanitarian charity work generally. But when I pay my taxes I know that the distribution of the funds is nominally under some democratic and legal governance that is not attached to someone's personal belief system. (Though that is also degrading over time) (FWIW I've personally donated funds to charities that have church / religious affiliations despite being an atheist. But I'm extremely picky about it)
- UtopiaPunk 3y agoSure, some churches are on the side of war. I grew up in such a church. Now I attend one of the "mainline" denominations (which tends to roughly mean Protestant, and not Evangelical). Mainline denominations are usually more politically liberal. Much more likely to find strident anti-war stances.
- minorannoyance2 3y agoNo, but they are more of a scam than most taxes. Historically speaking, churches haven't exactly abstained from war or pretty much any other atrocity. In terms of our current reality, they are usually not better value for money than taxes. Any time you can point to corruption, misuse of funds, politics or other issues, it is worth remembering that this applies to the churches as well.
- dahfizz 3y agoEven if this is true "historically speaking", it doesn't have to be true of this guy's local church. Despite the bad press generally, an individual church can still be an unambiguous benefit to its community. I would be willing to bet that the majority of local (single location, <400 members) churches are like this. Free meals for the community, donating money / labor / resources to homeless shelters, partnering with food banks and soup kitchens, etc are all very common. You just don't hear about it.
- lmm 3y agoThe larger and less accountable an organisation is, the more corruption and waste there tends to be. I would agree that donations to a large national religious movement are probably more of a scam than national taxes, but that's not the comparison being made here.
- moate 3y agoIs this more of a scam than the comment it was responding to?
- johnnyanmac 3y agoAfter watching the collapse of the Third Place in real time during my life: maybe there was a method to the madness. You realize how utterly herculean a task it is to plan town gatherings and realize that some small (optional but peer-pressured) tithe and bit of prayer isn't much different from going to a Cafe to meet up and paying for a drink. I almost wish I could like church for those reasons.
- downrightmike 3y ago[flagged]
- EatingWithForks 3y agoI'm actually really confused by this claim, as a person raised in a non-white immigrant household. I bought onto the idea of churches as community because my immigrant churches were full of apple picking, group meals in the church itself, thanksgivings at the pastor's house, etc. But someone recently told me in Catholic mass you don't even get a church-wide breakfast?? WTF? How the hell does community get formed if the actual worshipping actions isn't inherently a community building action? Someone told me the guy can bless you if you don't eat the bread, but you can't even ask for a specific blessing, like "my son needs an A, can I get the whole church to pray for him" style stuff. I'm way more skeptical of the notion of church as a community now. If all the church community is via volunteer charity actions, just volunteer directly unaffiliated with a religion.
- atdrummond 3y agoCatholic Churches do plenty of community meals - just not around mass. This is likely due to the former requirement to fast proper to communion.
- EatingWithForks 3y agoI think that's bizarre though. Mass is the one requirement everyone needs to do together-- obviously, that's the best time to sit with a meal and gossip. Even on important holidays, easter mass etc. are the few times limited practicing catholics will appear. This is the perfect time to ask how they've been, how're the kids, and welcome them with fresh hot food, maybe invite them to the litter picking up effort next week. I'm extremely skeptical of church as a community building thing now, because based off of my white friends recollection there's very little actual community around worship itself. There are a bunch of volunteer actions outside of it, but just going to worship isn't itself community. This makes me question why we can't have a generic mutual aid group do this instead, like the Anarchist Soup folks.
- shortrounddev2 3y agoTax deductions only come into play if they are higher than the standard deduction. Unless he is donating tens of thousands of dollars each year (in addition to other itemized deductions), it likely doesn't change anything
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoIsn't the standard deduction going back to normal after the non-corporate part of Trump's tax cuts expire?
- hippich 3y agoHe was donating quite a lot while not making much himself. That was the reason me asking why he is doing it.