From: hamilton@hydra.cs.gmr.com (William E. Hamilton CS50 CS/50)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Government Subsidizing Religion?
Date: 17 Oct 92 02:22:16 GMT
Reply-To: hamilton@gmr.com (William E. Hamilton CS50 CS/50)
Organization: GM Research Labs, Warren, MI

In article <Oct.13.01.23.22.1992.21971@geneva.rutgers.edu> cnc405@bnr.ca (Charles (C.F.) Board) writes:
>
>It looks like we DO have government
>subsidies for religious proslytizing.  True, this
[= tax deduction for contribution to a religious org - weh]
>is not a direct government
>expenditure - but every time this man gives money to to further Christian
>propaganda, money that would have gone to the US treasury doesn't. So someone
>else (all of us, actually) must pay more. I'm curious what the Christian
>viewpoints are on forcing non-believers to support your religion through
>charitable deduction laws, property tax exemptions,etc?

I believe the tax exemption for religions is based on the first amendment,
which says in part (probably not the exact words, but (I hope) a reasonably
accurate paraphrase) "...Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment
of religion or the free exercise thereof..." 

The framers of the constitution didn't want the government aiding or
interfering with religion, so they added an amendment which pretty much
makes prevents government from exercising any oversight whatever over
religion. True, a chruch can lose its tax exemption if it engages in certain
kinds of activities that other tax-exempt organizations are prohibited from - 
like supporting a political candidate or hiring lobbyists to try to
influence legislation. But the kind of oversight you are implying here
would be difficult if not impossible to apply without interfering
with the exercise of the religion. For example, people from my 
church worked with a shelter for the homeless for a number of years, 
cooking meals and collecting donations of clothes. However, in the course
of helping these people, they told them about Jesus Christ and His 
love for them. Frequently the opportunity arose quite naturally - in
response to a "Why are you helping me?" kind of question. So - if the
Federal Government wants to limit tax deductibility to those things which
are not religious proselytization, how much of the contributions that were
used to feed and clothe the homeless should be disallowed? Keep in mind
that no tax deduction was taken for much of it - people just went
to the store and bought some food, preapred it and brought it, or they
donated some clothing without even thinking about taking a deduction
for it. Or, when my church builds a facility it will pay taxes to the
municipality it builds in. It will pay for the municipally provided services 
it uses, but will not pay taxes.  Now, some of the floorspace in that
building will be used sometimes to proselytize, so perhaps You want
the church to have to pay taxes proportional to the proselytizing
activities. So, tell me: A Sunday School class studies church history.
The writings of reformers such as Luther and Calvin are studied and when
they refer to Scripture, the passages referred to are studied. From time
to time a person becomes a Christian as a result of the teaching of this class.
How should the nondeductibility of this class be computed? Be
careful, because your answer might be construed as interference
with education as well as interference with religion. Hundreds of
such allocations would have to be made each year for each church.
Whether the framers of the constitution foresaw such a nightmare I don't know.
I think it's more likely that they simply did not want the government
directly supporting or interfering with any religion. 

Certainly the situation that exists today can be abused by religious
organizations. But our constitution does not try to eliminate the
possiblity of abuses so much as to limit them.

Bill Hamilton