If abortion candidates have to be "told what's in there," churchgoers should too

[jmowreader]

In the spirit of the "forced ultrasound" bills currently making their way through state legislatures across America, some fine upstanding liberal needs to enter a bill requiring churches to report to each of their registered parishioners, on at least an annual basis, the following:

the current assessed value of all real property, motor vehicles and other taxable capital goods the church owns

at the current rate of taxation for the location the church is in, the amount of taxes the church is exempt from because of its status as a church

and the number of dollars the parishioner's property and motor vehicle taxes are higher because the church's tax exemption has to be made up for somehow.

[Major Nikon]

1. I would go one better than that

If groups like Planned Parenthood have to provide all their financial records to congress to prove they aren't spending tax money on abortions, churches should have to disclose all their financial records to congress to prove they aren't spending tax dollars on things like sending priests and pastors on sabbaticals to countries with lax enforcement of child molestation laws.

[RC]

2. Or better yet, each year the churches need to prove they are not politicking to keep their

tax exempt status.

[Major Nikon]

3. They need to look at all their financial records

If churches are going to accept money from the government, they should be audited by the government. That is the standard the anti-choice crowd is setting for Planned Parenthood.

[jmowreader]

4. I could live with that, but it has a couple of problems

The most obvious, to me at least, is the churches with the most to hide would scream "religious discrimination" and "persecution" and turn this shit into a "the big evil government is trying to keep you from praying in Jesus' Name!" pity party.

Slightly less important, but still important, is that churches, in general, are independently owned and operated. The paperwork would overwhelm the Congress, so they could hide a whole lot of atrocities in there.

I'd just like to see the looks on the parishioners' faces when they realize what "tax exempt" really means in the context of their own pocketbooks.

[Major Nikon]

5. If the churches don't like the idea of financial disclosure...

they shouldn't be demanding to know where abortion clinics are spending their money. So to their claims of "persecution" I would simply say turnabout is fair play.

Paperwork would not be a problem. A standard financial disclosure that itemizes specific categories of expenditures would be fine. If they don't want to do it, fine. Then don't ask for any money from the government and don't ask for tax exemptions.

[Possumpoint]

6. Sat In A Vestry Meeting For The First Time

The financial report for the church was discussed. Turns out that a portion of the property is taxed as non religious in its use. Church members started discussing how to change that to avoid taxes.

Natural instinct appears to be if you are liable for taxes how can you avoid them.

[HopeHoops]

7. Hey, shouldn't priests have to get a visible screen shot of their colon cancer exams?

Fair's fair.

[SATIRical]

8. As long as the gov't is also willing to be accountable to the church

Either you want separation of church and state or you don't.

[jmowreader]

10. I'm not the one who doesn't want separation of church and state

The current Republican primary contenders are Mullah Omar who went on vacation with his dog on the roof, Mullah Omar who took a dead baby home from the hospital and Mullah Omar who shut down the government because President Clinton made him ride in the back of Air Force One.

[thesquanderer]

9. Maybe they should be told what really is (and isn't) in the bible, too. (nt)