My local church puts out big signs in front telling you what to vote for. Regularly see cops attend that church. No one cares
The police don't enforce tax regulations. The IRS has its own people for that.
Would you expect an IRS auditor to pull someone over for speeding? Of course not, that's ridiculous.
I don't even expect my local PD to pull anyone over for speeding. They don't do shit.
Unless they're Black drivers who don't even have to be speeding.
Except the last 3 days of the month
All these church regular attendees are constantly being told what to do with their lives. "No abortion, no lgbt", etc. I would say, even if they were not told who to vote for explicitly, they are still being told who to vote for implicitly.
(Not saying what they doing is right, just saying how this whole religion thing works)
Yep. That's 100% the bigger issue. The church may or may not officially say to vote for a specific person or party, but they sure as shit will manipulate their entire group to think and vote a certain way.
And even more insidious is most of the people will deny they are being manipulated. They will insist that they decide how to vote all by themselves. It's just years of indoctrination and manipulation to the point most of them don't even realize they are being controlled and used.
And maybe some truly believe it all too, but most have doubts and realize it's messed up, but have been gaslit into thinking it's THEIR shortcomings or flaws or human nature to blame. Not the organization, them personally.
And here we are millennia later still arguing with grifters and con artists so good at the grift they believe it works.
the irs already knows that line is violated constantly. unfortunately, they don't have the resources or the kahunas to go after the churches that do this. there's way too many (like most of them, probably), and "going after churches" would be a political shitstorm regardless of the constitutional validity of such "persecution"
The word you're looking for is cajones. Also, capitalization exists for a reason.
The thing about the IRS is that they exist mostly outside of the consideration of political pandering. They just need to enforce tax code, not care about what people think. Kind of like a computer program. They don't write the rules they just enforce whatever is on the books. They aren't really elected or responsible for the perception of their acts. They are already generally unpopular publicly so I don't see them being overly concerned about political shitstorms.
Churches should be tax liable anyway, regardless of whether they tell you how to vote. Why are they exempt, but other businesses aren't? Or rather, why are other business tax liable when churches aren't?
aren't most non-profits free from taxation?
Yes, and they are held to certain standards and have reporting requirements. Churches do not have to do anything except declare they are a church. No standards, no reporting. They can just count their profits.
Right? Talk about privilege and special rights! I don't get why these megachurches have these millionaire pastors flying around in private jets and nobody bats an eye. Right, Joel Olsteens?
Religion is cancer
That's kinda mean toward cancer.
Fuck cancer. Fuck organized religion, too. They both suck major donkey balls.
When was the last time the IRS actually did this?
recently enough that someone bragged about it on /r/chaoticgood before the Snoopocalypse, which got captured in a video of people reading & reacting to reddit posts.
Was there even a first time?
In my youth I went to your standard Roman Catholic schools and church and such, and they would never ever try to influence your decisions in this way. That's wild.
Now, I dislike organised religion as much as the next person, absolutely. But if there's a religious group that are trying to take away people's agency on who to vote for, they need to be shut down immediately.
They are a threat to our democracy.
You've never been to a cowboy church in the south then. Because I went once with a friend and I swear the pastor talked more about politics than the bible.
The fundie evangelicals are so enamored with the south now that even yankee megachurch pastors are starting to talk with a fake southern drawl.
The worst a priest said, around where I live at least, is that "you should vote within your beliefs as a catholic. Primary issue is abortion, I'm not telling you how to vote but I am asking that you do your research and try to vote within the beliefs of the church"
Other than that, politics was NEVER talked about
Except it's not enforced at all. First step is getting it actually enforced
With the power, influence, and money some churches have, there is absolutely no way in Hell it'll ever be enforced against them. They'll just end up asking for more money from their followers so they can offset the cost of throwing money at the IRS or whoever they need to.
are there any examples of this ever working? I'd like to be wrong but I don't think this works or has ever worked
good to know there is a line, even if its far far too lenient
Wouldn't we be rid of churches if this was actually enforced?
I am Catholic and it annoys me to no end when priests do this as if a politician is even honest about what they claim to support half the time in the first place. I didn't know I could report them! Where's the form?!
I guess we’ll have to send in spies, though, because congregation members are never going to report their own church.
Especially applicable to megachurches and those preaching prosperity theology.
I've sent them photographs of a local church with "Vote Trump" on the placard out front. Nothing happened.
Did you do it anonymously or did you have your name on it? According to their form
All referrals are sent to analysts at the EO Classifications Office in Dallas. After a referral is made, the IRS will send an acknowledgement letter to all non-IRS sources making a referral, unless it was made anonymously.
They should be required to process it, but only if it's not anonymous. I'm guessing anything anonymous is thrown in the bin unless it's super serious.
Yep. Same with all 501c organizations. Make it a rule across the board. Churches, planned parenthood, BLM, all charities.
How does BLM or planned parenthood qualify here?
Especially when they're directly opposed by one political side whereas church and charity is generally accepted by both sides?
It'd be hard to find a BLM member that supports the Republican party for instance. It's a massive conflict of interest. Same with planned parenthood.
The difference is Republicans decided to make these organizations the enemy.
I feel like we should all attend churches during voting season so we can collectively report them. That would be hilarious.
If I thought the government would act on the information, this is the only thing that would ever get me to set foot in a church.
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