Where does your donation to your church actaully go?

A bloggers' take on donating to a church

From The Economist

The Catholic church is as big as any company in America. Bankruptcy cases have shed some light on its finances and their mismanagement.

A commenter sums it up nicely:

Part of the consequence of pretending an entirely man-made construct is something divine and affording it a respect and untouchability that it never deserved. The church has had a long history of financial and moral ineptitude. I would far rather donate to a secular institution which is transparent, accountable and doesn't use a share of its income to promote widespread belief in absurd fairy tales, questionable ethics and ancient superstitions.

Church and State need further separation - tax the churches.

They wanted GOOD ideas!

Abso-fucking-lutely.

Church think

Indeed, what IS the role of the church in today's world? Real world ignorance is declining, so the only hope of survival for the church is to cling to the concept of old-fashioned sin and hate.

WiFi

Why your church doesn't offer free WiFi...

The coalition

The coalition between right-wing, "kill all the infidels" radicals and the Christian churches will NEVER make any fucking sense to me. Seems to me that Christ's teachings, e.g. turn the other cheek, are in direct contrast to the "shoot it if it moves" faction. Or am I missing something?

Now there's a thought...

Now, as I understand it, Jesus said that if you believe in him you would have everlasting life. He never said that you need to go to church to make it into heaven. So why do so many religious nuts feel they need to go to church to have someone else tell them how to believe and how to behave? Guess they just can't think for themselves.

From Acerbic Politics

Maybe It's Just Me....

Maybe it's just me - where I grew up (northeast US), the church I attended, my parents, etc. but I find some of the southern religious stuff really very funny. It is just so incongruous to me. All you need to see where I'm coming from is the headline from Raw Story (click the link to read the article).

Arkansas considers allowing concealed weapons in churches

Heh. Talk about the shoot-out at the O.K Corral - we might next have a movie about two folks getting pissed off about the way they each said the Lord's Prayer and having a shoot-out at the Abraham First Baptist Bible Church. Whooppee!!

No More Separation of Church and State

The rule of our government is that churches that endorse candidates are subject to losing their right to exist tax free. If that were a different President in office, they might have a problem. But with Bush still holding down the fort, I'd guess that nothing will get done. (In my own opinion, churches should pay taxes anyway.)

From the New York Times...

Ministers to Defy I.R.S. by Endorsing Candidates

Defying a federal tax law they consider unjust, 33 ministers across the country will take to their pulpits this Sunday and publicly endorse a candidate for president.

They plan to then send copies of their sermons to the Internal Revenue Service, hoping to provoke a challenge to a law that bars religious organizations and other nonprofits that accept tax-deductible contributions from involvement in partisan political campaigns.

The protest, called Pulpit Freedom Sunday, was organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, a consortium of Christian lawyers that fights for conservative religious and social causes. When the fund first announced the protest this year, it said it planned to have 50 ministers taking part. As of Thursday it said it had hundreds of volunteers, but had selected only 33 who were fully aware of the risks and benefits.