If watching the talking heads of the American right wing has taught me anything these past few years, it is that the biggest problems facing America today can be lumped along partisan lines.
Welfare queens in Cadillacs and clandestine socialists on Wall Street (along with the millions of uninsured brought into the fray in today’s health care debate) are to be suspect ““ as looters, as parasites, as unduly leeching from the blood-sucking, freedom-hating hand of leftist Uncle Sam.
They rail against government for taxing too much, for being out of touch with the citizens’ needs, for displaying hostility to the spirit of capitalism itself. They decry society’s move away from the good ol’ Judeo-Christian beliefs. But to their own hypocrisy and filching of public funds they show only insouciance and self-righteous entitlement.
Because here in America there’s a little provision of the Internal Revenue Code called 501(c)(3). And through this piece of legislation, churches, synagogues and other places of worship get tax-free donations, tax-free land and tax-free commercial enterprises.
Which means, effectually, that I, a beaten, battered and broke taxpayer, fund the deficit left by the numerous religious institutions to which I don’t subscribe. Which means, essentially, that the 34 million American adults who identified with no religion in the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey finance the plenitude of beliefs they have rejected.
If this isn’t a federal subsidy in disguise, I don’t know what is. For in being exempt from income taxes, religious institutions are spared the trials and tribulations that other corporations must face in times of economic uncertainty.
They are kept afloat, perhaps, because they are too holy to fail ““ with my tax money, my 30 pieces of silver.
And the secular left is a parasite on public funds?
The rationale behind such tax exemptions is that churches earn no net profit. Where there is no income, there is no income tax. Sound fair? Perhaps not.
For a corporation to warrant preferential treatment and indirectly benefit from public funds by virtue of making no money is antithetic to the very idea of a free market. Businesses fail all the time ““ when government steps in to save the day, America’s right-wing conscience usually shakes its head in McCarthyist dismay.
Churches, of course, never sought a profit to begin with (allegedly, but that’s a whole other can of worms). So does the intention of no-profit necessitate federal support? I don’t stand to make money from this column ““ do I deserve tax exemptions? My bank account begs to differ.
It thus follows that religious institutions must serve some purpose for society at large if they are to continue living off my indirect tithing.
And they certainly do, of course, through charity for the sick, and the poor and the hungry. Secular non-profits qualify for tax exemptions, and so long as churches, and synagogues, and mosques, and covens engage the public with charitable efforts, it is not beyond reason for them to remain tax-exempt, as well.
It is hard, however, to see their intentions as purely altruistic when the mega-church industry alone is worth several billion dollars. And if my extensive experience with local Baptist churches is any indication, pastors aren’t only serving the needs of the congregation.
Charities, too, are not strictly humanitarian in nature; they are often mere methods of converting or indoctrinating (they like to call it “witnessing to”) others. That’s my tax money, funding the propagation of someone else’s beliefs.
Among the various purposes Section 501(c)(3) lists, the “advancement of religion” is explicitly stated as a qualification to exempt a non-profit from income taxes.
And this is an unholy marriage between church and state that ought not exist in this secular nation. As much as my detractors might insist on the Founding Father’s religious intent, a simple reading of the Treaty of Tripoli (ratified by the Senate and signed into law in 1797) would say otherwise.
The treaty’s overt denial of our nation’s Christian foundation, along with the multiple measures found in the Constitution to limit religious interference in public affairs make it clear that federal privilege to religious institutions is profoundly un-American.
If religious institutions should remain tax-exempt, it is only insofar as they serve a secular charitable purpose. Tax exemption should be based on the level of good done for the sake of the public, not in the name of God. Religious institutions should be held accountable – transparency is necessary to distinguish between strictly charitable efforts and religious operational funds. Organizations should not be granted preferential treatment by virtue of being religious ““ it is unconscionable for the federal government to (indirectly) subsidize religion.
Religion for the sake of religion is not a public good, not in the same way other organizations that benefit from federal privilege are. As long as religious institutions use this federal advantage to further a religious cause, they are no less than abusing public funds to spread a religious agenda. And in light of the active involvement of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints with funding Proposition 8 last election, this federal advantage has broader-reaching implications that threaten the very nature of a free, ideologically neutral government.
And it’s not just my money they’re squandering, but yours as well. Whether you like it or not.
If you render unto God that which is Caesar’s, e-mail Manalastas at jmanalastas@media.ucla.edu.
Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.