We really need to start taking away tax exemption for churches that pull political stunts. Want to break the agreement? Fine, be as fiscally bankrupt as you are morally.
this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
232 points (97.9% liked)
News
23303 readers
5275 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
We really need to start taking away tax exemption for churches ~~that pull political stunts~~.
Fixed.
I've said it before I'll say it again, churches shouldn't automatically be tax exempt, if they want tax exempt status they should have to register as a 501c3 or similar like any other organization and follow the same rules. Automatically qualifying for tax exempt status allows them to get away with so much shit.
“This method of voting is bad and could be abused, but if it helps us win I’m all for it.”
- Robert Tyler, Attorney representing Conservative Churches/Pastors
"Us"
Republicans Harvesting Ballots is PROOF that DEMOCRATS Harvested Ballots!
The Church treats mail in voting like an abortion.
"Only mine is valid"
Any church that does this should not get to be tax-free under the religious exemptions, because they're also a political organization
I think Churches should be taxed regardless but I don't think what's happening here is really cause for concern. They don't seem to be telling the people who to vote for just telling them they should vote and helping facilitate them. My voting location is actually a church and I know lots of churches will help drive people to the polls on voting day. I think that's all ok. People should all be allowed to vote. No matter how much I disagree with their beliefs.
Oh, it's not partisan? That's... fine, yeah
Why? Do you think non-religious get out the vote groups should also be forced to pay taxes? I think there is a huge difference between helping congregants vote and telling congregant to vote for Trump.
“But the rules of the game have changed,”
What has changed? From my understanding, mail in ballots have existed as far back as the civil war. This biggest changes to this came in the 70's when you no longer needed a reason to use this method. If anything, the fact that they are jumping on board and collecting the ballots for them seems extremely shady...
Robert Tyler, a California-based attorney who represents conservative churches and pastors, said he still believes “ballot harvesting and universal vote by mail creates opportunities for fraud.”
And is therefore going to prove it by committing that fraud himself.
Good. Mail everyone a damned ballot. Postage paid preferably.
make their voices heard as Christians.
... And vote for the pornstar-fucking-while-the-wofe-is-pregnant, charity robbing, fraudulent, rude, narcissistic, dictator loving, lying, stealing, thieving, gluttonist, narcissistic asshole with psychopathic tendencies because, you know, Christ!
As long as each of those ballots is filled out by an individual who is registered and legally able to vote, and is sealed by that person before it is handed off to whoever, I'm OK with this. I might rib them about their rank hypocrisy, but if they're not falsifying ballots, they're not really doing anything wrong.
Seriously, the idea of "ballot harvesting" is bullshit invented by people who just want to make it harder for people to vote because they're afraid the people might vote against them.
If the rule is "ballot harvesting is OK" you're going to get this kind of behavior. And it rewards whichever of the megaparties builds the most efficient political machine.
I'd personally rather have an actual election day with mandated work leave for the entire day, and rare application of absentee ballots for people with extenuating circumstances.
I want absentee to be the norm. It means that voters can take their time and research what they are voting for based on more than just the voter's pamphlet.
My state has been like this for years, and there haven't been any problems.
Same here (I want that to remain). It's a much better way for an informed vote, IMO.
In Canada we have early voting days (usually a couple of weeks before the actual election day and often on weekends) for anyone who can't vote on the actual day.
But we also have a functioning judicial system and far less right-wing self-righteousness than America does (so far anyway, but it is migrating up here at an increasing pace).
We have shown no evidence of them doing this, so have to do it ourselves to show it is a problem.
EDIT: If they are just registering voters and mailing in their legal votes, then I don't see any problem with them doing this.