We as a nation are constantly progressing to live up to the implications of our most cherished documents. The constitution and the bill of rights are two documents that define who and what we do as a nation, or at least they should. The forefathers were not perfect but many of them were men of the “enlightenment” who saw the hypocrisy and obscene power the religious institutions from their mother country had utilized to stamp out freedoms that we enjoy today. The first amendment is one of the most highly regarded freedoms that we as a nation have been built on. This amendment states in part “Congress shall make no law respecting an established religion or prohibiting the free exercise there-of.” This means under no circumstances, should any religion receive special treatment from our elected officials who make up the federal government in Congress. In the U.S., the tax exemption of religious institutions is congress sending a clear and unconstitutional message to the United States public: “A specific demographic of people are above United States law and through government subsidies, the general public, whether they are religious or not, will indirectly pay for these institutions to thrive.” Aside from this blatant hypocrisy and coddling of organized religion by congress, it is allowing for unprecedented amounts of money to be dumped into political campaigns from religious institutions for candidates that essentially protect ONE specific set of ideals to be legislated into law. Yes there are lobbyists and corporations who do the same thing but the difference is they are taxed. These are the kinds of concessions that the US forefathers were specifically against as they knew from their history. Tax exemptions in the United States began for “charitable organizations” in 1894 under the Wilson-Gorman Act which later was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1895. The revenue act of 1909 used the same language as the Wilson-Gorman act and tax exemptions remained this way for the next century. The problem is that of all these charitable organizations, the religious institutions were some of the only organizations that have been exempt from a government implemented “unrelated business income tax” (also known as UBIT’s), that taxed donations received FROM businesses that have nothing to do with the “non-profit’s” mission. This means that if “charity” is the mission of the organization for it to be considered tax exempt, collecting money from private corporations that are the antithesis of charitable, for the sake of argument say like the extremely religious weapons manufacturer Trijcon best known for placing bible scripture on its ammunition and assault rifles, would go untaxed. Not only are tax exemptions for religious institutions unconstitutional, they are unethical in a variety of ways. Let us examine how and why.
If we inspect who the largest recipients of charity from these charitable organizations are, we have only to look as far as the actual institution of the church itself. Top mega church pastors live on salaries of up to $400,000 a year. This salary amount is also what the United States president makes. In “Research Report: How Secular Humanists (and Everyone Else) Subsidize Religion in the United States” by Ryan T. Cragun, Stephanie Yeager, and Desmond Vega, a study is cited calculating the expenditures of 271 US congregations. We see that on average, 71% of the donations went to “operating expenses”, which include ministers salaries. According to the Better Business Bureau’s standards for a charitable organization to be legitimate, 65% of its total expenses need to be on program activities. These two different definitions get blurred when considering “operating expenses” do not necessarily mean program activities, nor does it include pastor’s salaries. In Jesse Bogan’s Forbes article in 09, “America’s Biggest Megachurches,” he states that in the US, an average megachurch’s annual income was around 8.5 billion. Of course there are many churches that ARE extremely generous and do great work but when revenues reach billions, we need to reconsider how accountable these institutions are.
If we set a standard that a charitable organization must at least donate a modest 50% of income to those in need, the statistics show the majority of church’s in the US would not meet this criteria. “Food for the Poor” is a religious organization that donates 95% of its revenue DIRECTLY to hunger relief. This should set the precedent for a true charitable organization. Besides that, secular organizations, such as the taxed corporation Microsoft, have donated 6 BILLION in the past 30 years in the form of cash and charitable donations. Does this astounding charity amount justify Microsoft in being tax exempt? Absolutely not, as it should not justify allowing Congress to favor religious institutions that ultimately still are selling something.
The ultimate business ploy which is currently being used by pharmaceutical companies is also being used by the largest religious demographic in the US. The idea is to invent a disease and then present the cure at a price. For “big pharma,” the disease can come in many forms from restless leg syndrome to exaggerated stomach issues. In the US’ largest religious group Christianity, the invented problem is sin and the cure is the savior for your “eternal soul” and church. Something is still being sold to the public whether it is tangible or not. There is not one person on the planet born subscribing to these doctrines; they must be taught these ideas and for it to stick, people need to be taught young while they are impressionable, which leads to revenue for the church.
This leads us to the next detriment that church tax exemption is causing society. Because of this dated exclusivity of religious institutions paying zero taxes on donations from businesses, they have deep pockets to push their own agendas. In “CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS: A STUDY OF CURRENT PRACTICES IN THE LOCAL CHURCH” we read “A recent report noted that 37 foundations provided $168 million to approximately 700 evangelical Christian organizations over a four year period. The organizations focus primarily on such issues as making abortion illegal, banning same-sex marriage and promoting school prayer.” Though fighting for these causes is not illegal, it should not be sanctioned by the US government. The argument that congress is not biased to these causes falls short considering the fact that over 85% of Congress is either Protestant or Catholic, both subscribers to the Bible. This may not seem like an issue until we realize where this funding leads us when it comes to legislation.
Donations and pushing for a cause are an American right but where the conflict of interest becomes unacceptable is when these religious institutions violate their tax exemption provisions by directly endorsing political candidates from the pulpit and fail to lose their exemption status. Over the past 6 decades, religious organizations, and most notably the Christian right, have influenced US law and legislation since the civil rights era where fundamentalists like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were fervent opponents of social equality. Their first mission was to get African Americans out of their Christian churches, then after that battle was lost, the focus moved to gay marriage and anti-abortion legislation. In the peer reviewed journal “Abortion in the United States’ bible belt: organizing for power and empowerment,” Mary Anne Castle writes “The Christian Right raises billions of dollars to support ultra-conservative state-level candidates and legislators to promulgate their religious views. These philanthropists have developed interconnected funding priorities and strategies to advance their public policy agenda.” Not only is the separation of church and state completely violated by these actions, this specific organization has no regard or respect for the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli. The Treaty of Tripoli, ratified UNANIMOUSLY by congress and signed by President John Adams, states specifically “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” In a nation of immigrants, that is built on religious freedom, upheld by a government constitution that refuses to respect any specific religion or favor one over another, tax exemption that allows one religion to permeate political discourse, push its ideals on the majority and influence with unlimited funding with no accountability, is not part of a democracy. It is the making of a theocracy.
There is an argument that it is unconstitutional to tax churches because that in itself is infringing on religious autonomy. That would be substantiated if religion would stay out of government affairs, would stop pushing political propaganda at church services, stop dumping millions into political candidates, and stop receiving “unrelated business income.” This has been a reality since 1950 under the Revenue Act. Accepting income from taxable businesses that can then write off those donations, from businesses that have nothing to do with the church’s mission, is another form of engaging in embezzlement. Active right now, there is an organization known as “the Family” or “the Fellowship” that is one of the largest most powerful evangelical groups in the US who are taking steps, utilizing income from congregations and businesses, to orchestrate government actions. Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” said in an interview with Amy Goodman on the news network Democracy Now in 09: “conservative-leaning sociologist at Rice University D. Michael Lindsay surveyed about 360 evangelical politicians and wanted to ask them which religious groups were really influential in Washington. The group that came out with more votes than any other, one in three, was the Family….with millions of dollars flowing through every year. It’s a group of friends that organizes the National Prayer Breakfast, at which the President of the United States speaks every year, that has the money to bring over foreign heads of state, and they can get those people into the White House.” Consider also the amount of money spent settling the sex abuse scandals rampant in the untaxed international Catholic Church. Associated Press estimated that the settlements to the victims of these heinous acts by these men collectively cost 2 billion dollars from 1950 to 2007 and since then, many more cases have surfaced internationally. Quite simply put, if religions have the money to protect pedophile priests, if they can stop homosexuals from being married by dumping millions into candidates and organizers to push for inequality legislation, if they can send missionaries to work on banning contraception in countries with little resources essentially boosting unwanted pregnancy and STD rates, if they have millions to pour into weapons contractors to print bible scriptures on ammunition for war, they can afford to pay taxes to help build a road in America.
The reasonable and extremely generous solution would be to keep all the stipulations of the current policies to qualify for tax exemption status as a charitable organization, which a religious organization can apply for, BUT they must prove that 75% of all their donations must go to aid programs to people in need, no matter who they are and regardless of their religion, sexual orientation and political affiliation. Religious organizations cannot apply for tax exemption status on the grounds of only being a religious institution; they must provide a service to the community which would include food programs, shelter, school supplies for children or adults, and clothes with the funds that are donated to them. The aid must be able to be accounted for and calculated. There is too much room for possible fraudulent activity when an organization measures its aid by enforcing its own interpretation of morality alone and because of this possible margin for irresponsibility, proselyting will be banned. These funds and allocated monies will be subject to quarterly audits. There will unequivocally be unrelated taxable business income on every religious organization EXCEPT the ones that apply for tax exempt charitable organization status and who prove that 75% of their donations go to aid programs for the needy.
These strict but reasonable stipulations will put a stop to profitable religious businesses that prey on people’s faith and hope simply to boost their own egos, sense of self-importance and more importantly, boost unfettered profits that go tax free to push political agendas completely blurring the lines between separation of church and state. It will greatly help out the federal government that is currently losing out on billions annually that could go to projects and programs that can help the entire country. It will put a sanction on the free flow of capital to political officials that push a specific agenda, which ultimately translates to legislation that favors a demographic of religious people. Simply put, the constitution will be upheld, and most importantly, the people who are supposed to be the recipients of these charitable organizations will actually receive the charity!
Let us for the sake of argument compare a megachurch to the huge corporate giant Microsoft or Apple, whose contributions to society, specifically in Microsoft’s case, can be measured in terms of its generous donations to education and electronics to colleges, educational institutions and low income regions. Because we cannot measure how many souls are saved and judge a church by this, we must look at something tangible and look at evidence, the way we make reasonable decisions about most things in our world. Last year, Microsoft paid 4.5 billion in taxes. According to Ryan Cragun a University of Tampa Sociology Professor, the US forgoes around 71 billion a year in not taxing religious institutions. This is quite a big difference when examining the measurable and crucial aid Microsoft charitably gives to the future of this nation on a regular basis. The US megachurch should be treated like Microsoft because like I have stated earlier, it is selling hope, salvation and the IDEA of eternal life. When comparing the great things Microsoft does and the amount of money it pays in taxes vs. the megachurch where 71% of its incoming billions in donations go to administration, pays no taxes yet promises an intangible product, we see the US population has been happily sabotaging their own interests in the footsteps of many populations overtime in the past who have hoisted the people like the purveyors of the inquisition, crusades and witch hunts to god like status. If you think this comparison of a megachurch to a mega corporation is irrational, do not listen to just me, take neuroscience’s word for it. In “Don't Call Them Fanboys now, Call Them Acolytes,” a piece written for Business Insider by Alyson Shontell, she writes “They compared MRIs of Apple fans' brains to those of people who call themselves ‘very religious’ and found that Apple and religion light up the same part of the brain. This means that Apple triggers the same feelings and reactions in people as religion.” Whether it is a new electronic, or the holy spirit, the brain perceives both similarly.
Aside from the concrete evidence of the charity as well as accurate percentages of where the money is being allocated, provisions such as what I propose will root out “startups.” “Startup churches,” that are essentially invented, can avoid paying property tax simply on the basis of being called “church.” With guaranteed audits to ensure a specific percentage of donations go to aid programs, MORE people will be helped with this 25% administrative cost provision, and if they fail to meet this criteria, they get taxed which again ensures the most people benefit.
Overall, taxing the business that is the mega church is not only a reasonable request; it is an ethically logical one. It is not to punish or infringe on religious freedom, it is simply to stop non-religious citizens from paying for religious group’s exemption, it helps insure that the people who need the charity are truly receiving it, and generally helps uphold democracy. This country was founded on religious freedom and all of us working together to make society work, which does not and has never included disguising unfettered capitalism as eternal life.
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