XPost: alt.atheism, alt.religion.rational, alt.religion.islam   
   XPost: alt.religion.mormon   
   From: MAILTOcommoner@carcosa.de   
      
   J. Fartlington Poopnagel:   
      
   > There is no valid reason in the 21st century for ANY church or religion   
   > to NOT PAY TAXES!   
      
   As a German I may well miss some important details, but for all I know   
   you're right. If they make money they'll have to pay taxes, period.   
      
   Alternatively, a kind of balance between financial advantage and obligation   
   to use that advantage in a non-selfish manner may be nice too. Kind of like   
   the companies et cetera over here we call "gemeinnützig", for example the   
   Red Cross et cetera. Dunno what English word would fit best, sorry.   
      
   For those who don't know what "gemeinnützig" means, these do enjoy certain   
   priviledges of the financial sort... but they also have to invest almost   
   all their earnings into the functioning and expanding of their companies.   
   It is not allowed to make any significant winnings for their chairman or   
   board or whatever. So the Red Cross for example is allowed to build new   
   hospitals or purchase new emergency ambulances, but if one of their   
   high-ranking bureaucrats wants a villa at the Spanish coast... she'd better   
   keep her day job, or win the lottery. ;)   
   Gee, how much better would the US be off if, say, the televangelists had to   
   invest 99 % of their earnings into the public school system? *eg*   
      
   --   
   "To his friend a man a friend shall prove, and gifts with gifts requite;   
   But men shall mocking with mockery answer, and fraud with falsehood meet."   
   (The Poetic Edda)   
   Must have been written with fundies in mind...   
      
   My personal judgment of monotheism:   
   http://www.carcosa.de/nojebus   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)