by ABibleStudent 39 Replies latest social current
I checked the status of the revoke Scientology's tax-exemption petition. It has 15,000+ which is 5,000 more than a few days ago. 100,000 signatures are needed by April 22, 2015 to qualify for a White House response.
I hope that more people will sign this petition to force the White House to write a response on this issue. People can easily find the petition by googling "revoke Scientology's tax status".
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Hi SonoftheTrinity, If this petition to revoke Scientology's tax-exempt status does obtain 100,000 signatures, I'm sure that the White House's response will have some statement of protecting 1st Amendment rights as an excuse to do nothing.
Have you read the 1st Amendment? I feel that when Congress created tax-exempt status for religions without prohibiting religions from infringing on the free exercise of members to leave a religion (i.e., using undue influence and shunning) that Congress inadvertently infringed on individuals rights under the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the 1st Amendment.
There are very few requirements for organizations to qualify for religious tax-exempt status, such as self-declare that an organization is a religion, that donations do not enure to the benefit of a few people, and that an organization is not declared a terrorist organization or helping to fund terrorism by Executive Order.
I feel that adding a few more more requirements to the Tax Code for all tax-exempt organizations that help protect children from sexual abuse and stop organizations from promoting and using undue influence on its members would not infringe on any 1st Amendment rights for individuals. Individuals can think and organizations cannot!
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
I wonder how the government asserted itself to the Mormons, that they simply can't have more than one wife (though their religion taught it was okay, even good), so the government reinforced would not let the Utahans become a state? If the government could assert itself on that, it should be able to assert the law about abuse protection on behalf of the children!
Scientology's tax exempt status was revoked in the past and restored.
Revision of the tax code globally would hurt religious organizations financially. It would also hurt other nonprofits.
Removing tax exempt status as a punishment for concealing crimes is an interesting approach.
I signed the petition to revoke Scientology's tax exempt status. In my wildest dreams I don't expect it to happen, but this is a means of signaling the government that the public is very angry over this organization's deceitfulness and corruption and we want some kind of action.
Barbara
@ Gayle, Thank you for signing the petition. I hope that other people will sign it.
To answer your question, you can either read the Supreme Court decision REYNOLDS v. U.S., 98 U.S. 145 (1878) or take my word that Mr. Chief Justice Waite, delivering the opinion of the court, wrote, " . . . it may be accepted almost as an authoritative declaration of the scope and effect of the amendment thus secured. Congress was deprived of all legislative power over mere opinion, but was left free to reach actions which were in violation of social duties or subversive of good order."
In other words, Congress cannot pass laws about what an individual thinks but can pass laws about an individual's (and organization's) actions. Polygamy was against the laws in the territory of Utah in 1878, therefore Reynold's was guilty of polygamy.
@ rebel8, If you read the bill that I wrote, no organization's tax-exempt status would be revoked unless it committed perjury, making false statements to government agencies, or other crimes and the Secretary of the Treasury would be responsible for defining what was sufficient cause, For not protecting children from sexual abuse the worse that an organization would suffer would be suspension of their tax-exempt status until corrective actions were implemented that complied with IRS regulations.
The attorney, who reviewed the bill I wrote, thought that an organizations status should be automatically revoked, but also realized that it would be difficult to establish a standard of when to revoke its tax-exempt status.
@ Barbara, Thank you for signing the petition and adding your thoughts to this discussion. I agree with you that Scientology's tax-exempt status will not be revoked based on this petition, but it may cause politicians to realize that there is a problem with the Tax Code.
I hope that more than 100, 000 people will sign this petition before April 22, 2015 and that JWN members will add comments that they signed the petition to keep this thread in the top of active threads.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
This petition has obtained 18,500 signatures towards 100,000 total needed with 16 days to go.
If you sign this petition, please post your comments to this thread to keep it in the top of the active topics.
Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,
Robert
@ ABibleStudent,
I believe that Christian Fundamentalists would try to block such legislation with a vengeance. They're always stating the evil Obama is out to get 'Christianity' and their conspiracy theory would extend to this.
