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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cosmicforce who wrote (69898)	1/6/2003 12:25:37 AM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 82486

Speaking of the right to speak, I had an amusing little episode with jlallen, who used to post here until people got tired of his far right wing idiocy. He posted a stupid post on the Bin Laden Shame thread. I called him on it, so he attacks me and then bans me from the thread so I can't show him up. Just shows his moral cowardice, and how he shares with Saddam and others of that ilk the need to censor anybody who disagrees with him. Typical right wing behavior.

To: cosmicforce who wrote (69898)	1/9/2003 9:46:05 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

I'm not in favor of tax exemption for churches, BTW: I don't think there is any Constitutional basis for it. Rather, I think there is an implicit ban against it. I'm not sure that a tax excemption for churches would amount to establishing a church. Not taking money from some organization may have the same practical effect as giving the same amount of money to them (after taking it out in taxes) but it is not the same thing. If you believe that the establishment clause extends beyond the direct words in the constitution to a seperation of church and state, well then if the state can tax the church the seperation only runs one way. The church isn't really seperate if it's a source of the government's revenue. However, I think the issue of whether any church should get a benefit from the government Is a lower tax rate (including a zero tax rate) a benefit? Only if you start from the assumption that any money produced is the governments by right and any amount you are left to keep is a benefit. just because it is a religion is highly questionable because it forces the IRS to decide which churches qualify and which don't. Benefit or not, that can be a problem. Tim