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The IRS have now changed the rules

Since the IRS considers Secular Humanism to be a religion, I guess SH organizations can also endorse candidates. But, since just about every atheist I've ever met in real life always votes for the Democratic candidate in all elections, I guess there is no need for that. For the matter, almost all conservative Christians always vote for the asshole party so I guess there is no need for them to endorse anyone either.

My late mother was a rare exception, but she did tell me that her pastor told the congregation back in 2012 not to vote for the "Marxist Muslim" Obama, so yeah, this is nothing new. She voted for Obama because she didn't like anyone telling her how to vote. She also knew that what she was told was bullshit, even if she didn't use that exact wording.
 
southernhybrid said:
Since the IRS considers Secular Humanism to be a religion, I guess SH organizations can also endorse candidates.
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And if they currently don't have tax exempt status, they are certainly eligible for it now.

It's kind of a self report that the supporters of this say "church" and not mosque, temple or even synagogue. But at least the Church of Satan can now endorse Ted Cruz.
 
Farron of The Ring of Fire youtube has made a video about this, and he mentioned there is one way in which it is different from the old rules. Corporations can now make a donation to a church (with a tax write-off of course) which will pay the church to push the views of the corporation.
 
That is corrupt as fuck. But considering the likes of Kenneth Copeland, Paula White etc hardly unsurprising.
 
Patooka said:
southernhybrid said:
Since the IRS considers Secular Humanism to be a religion, I guess SH organizations can also endorse candidates.
Click to expand...
And if they currently don't have tax exempt status, they are certainly eligible for it now.

It's kind of a self report that the supporters of this say "church" and not mosque, temple or even synagogue. But at least the Church of Satan can now endorse Ted Cruz.
Click to expand...
They do have tax exempt status. As a former treasurer of a Humanist group, I never had to file tax returns because the IRS considered us a secular religion. That made my little volunteer job much easier, since at the time other non profits did have to file tax returns.
 
Honestly, I'm uncertain how this changes things. Churches already do this, they just don't "do it". Why the GOP would push this seems silly. It isn't like there isn't a particularly religious wing on the liberal side of things.

I think there is going to be a double edged sword reaction here, when you have the top level of an organized church saying one thing and a church itself saying the opposite, endorsing the "wrong" candidate.
 
It moves the church one step closer to being a tool of government. It sanctions what has been done in practice for many years. This is just more nibbling away at our protections. The church argued that the IRS has not enforced the Johnson Amendment and that this practice of nonenforcement should be the IRS interpretation.
Johnson Amendment
The IRS states that discussions on politics does not constitute participation or intervention in politics, calling them more akin to "family discussions".

That is one hell of a large family with a powerful patriarch.
 
But this was already happening. The IRS change looks to politicize and fragment churches more than impact Government. Though, the idea of a Mosque supporting a Democrat would certainly be weaponized against the Democrats.

I think other things have been creeping into Government outside of the church to squeeze evangelical Christianity into public life.
 
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