Cross posted @ God is 4 Suckers!
By now, unless you’ve been living in a cave, you are all aware that Haiti has been struck down by a powerful earthquake. And no doubt most of you know that religio-fucktard Pat Robertson (shown in the video above) has attributed the tragedy to a ‘deal made with the devil by Haitians to oust Napoleon’. I think everyone’s sick of this asshole, I know I am. Pat’s media career is fraught with some seriously stupid commentary, such as: we (the US) should send in assassins to cap Chavez, Katrina’s the result of dawg’s wrath, fighting the ERA, blaming 9/11 on everyone who wasn’t Christian, advising karateka not to ‘inhale demons’, claiming that Sharon’s stroke was divine intercession, claiming Islam isn’t a religion™, and claiming that the lawd sent him a vision of a terrorist attack in the US in 2007 (which of course didn’t happen, he just probably sucked down a bad milkshake or something).
Easy to discount him as a crazed loon? Well, tristero points out (and is frighteningly accurate) that Pat Robertson is not one to be discounted:
Dear Friends,
You can sneer all you want at Pat Robertson. You can condemn him all you want. And I'll join right in. He deserves everything you care to say about him, and much, much more. He is a seriously disturbed man.
But you dismiss and ignore him at your peril. Remember: this man used to call up the fucking president of the United States. And he got through. And the president listened to him.
You ever had that kind of access to power? Got it now? Thought not. Me, neither. You got his hundreds of millions of dollars? Got millions of fans giving you hard-earned- bucks? Nope, I don't have them either.
Sure, go ahead: Repeat the obvious: Of course, it's a sad state of affairs when an ignorant, moral degenerate like Pat Robertson is so influential to the most powerful men - and yeah, it's basically men - in the world.So what? Don't ever forget he had that access, and still has access, to far more powerful men (and the occasional woman) than you can even imagine. So...
There oughta be a law.
This is perhaps the most persuasive argument for taxing churches: churches can remain tax exempt, on the condition that they keep out of politics. That folks like Robertson, Dobson, or any of these other clowns can swing votes or call the president and perhaps influence our society, but are tax-free, is a sign of a broken system.
Till the next post, then.
4 comments:
'This is perhaps the most persuasive argument for taxing churches: churches can remain tax exempt, on the condition that they keep out of politics'
this is one argument that really confuses me.
i'm a supporter of separation of church and state worldwide, especially in greece where i live and where they are very much intertwined; however, a friend once warned that, as soon as an organization pays taxes, it will have every right to try to influence government policy.
not that it doesn't, already.
see the confusion?
Yes I do, dear. That stipulation is more likely to keep them out of politics (who wants to pay taxes? Nobody.) But taxpayers, regardless of whether they're individuals, corporations or churches, have a right to an equal say in government.
Not crazy about any religious people having a say, but if they pay taxes, they get a say.
yeah. exactly.
it's fair and democratic. may the best ideas win.
Well, can't discriminate against people, unless they're REALLY high-level nutjobs.
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