As American churches of all flavors have enjoyed decades of
tax exempt status, they may soon find this fact changing into a memory. Whether
a church receives millions in donations or a simple few thousand, up until now,
there has been great flexibility in how they chose to disperse of their funds.
The US federal government might do well to change the status
of churches for two reasons.
Fact number one: The majority of mainstream churches build
million or multiple million dollar buildings that stand empty most days of the
week. Or if they have a few random prayer meetings, they are dead closed on
Saturday (the actual. God appointed Sabbath day of rest) and open on Sunday for
about three out of every twenty-four hours. In general, these buildings are
used less than 25% of the time yet they represent billions of dollars donated
by the faithful across many Christian sects. Although many churches run
missions, they often require missionaries to do their own fundraising to pay
for their own expenses. And the churches that run day care centers out of their
facilities charge premium prices for parents to leave their children there and
doubly so for those who run an entire school operation. If churches were taxed,
it would force the tithe eaters to start to really prioritize where they put
their money.
Fact number two: Ministers are paid anywhere from
50,000-500,000 and beyond if they happen to be a "personal ministry"
such as we see with the super preachers on television. What fruit comes from
having a paid minister? The first consideration is the problem that comes from
having a sole male leader ruling over a church. In the case of the Roman
Catholic churches, we all have heard the jokes about the homosexual priests
molesting little boys. What of the Protestant preachers who have been caught in
acts of adultery or with a prostitute? When we put a man on a pedestal for any
reason, we create icons that simple minded folk start to look toward for
"permission", "advice", and "leadership". We are
called as believers to look to Jesus Christ as the captain of our salvation. He
is the sole mediator between human and Father God. Yet every church has a
system in place that replaces that direct relationship with God with a pyramid
male dominated structure that undermines the personal relationship God intended
to have with man upon the reconciliation that took place with the ripping of
the partition that separated the inner and outer areas in the temple.
In the temple, only the High Priest could enter the Holy of
Holies once a year on the holy day of Atonement (at-one-ment) to seek communion
with the Almighty. The symbolism of the literal ripping of this separation veil
at the moment of Christ's death immediately opened up an eternal door in which
each believer could go directly to Him in prayer and communication. No human
should ever come between the believer and the Father. When a minister is either
placed in this position or tries to become the link between believer and God,
they are in fact treading on the sacrifice of Christ. The death of Christ
forever removed this separation of the created to the Creator. Ministers have
the function of teaching and serving, not lording over or trying to control the
flock in any capacity. If ministers were volunteers or appointed part time and
were expected to do community service or hold full time jobs the rest of the
time, a lot of the man worship would automatically be corrected as they would
no longer be in a king like position. And for the individual preacher, having a
job would keep him or her connected to reality and they would be better able
relate to the common person who works in contemporary society for their
livelihood.
The fact that most tithes and donation money go directly to
support buildings and the ministers shows that this money could easily be
taxed. Why should it be taxed? America is virtually bankrupt. Companies and
businesses can't be taxed increasingly and churches remain untouched. The only
exception to a church being taxed is one that can prove that 75% of their
received donations go directly back out to community betterment in social
services in the forms of homeless and youth shelters, drug rehab programs, child
prostitution rescue, job/vocational function and other useful pursuits. It
doesn't take millions of dollars to preach the gospel. Ministers don't need to
fly all over the world in private jets. YouTube videos are free and several
software programs allow for the free creation of pod casts and all kinds of
social media platforms to get out both digital, video, audio, and written forms
of the message of salvation. If churches are going to be run like businesses with highly paid employees and other functions much the same, they should be taxed the same as well.
The final reason I really believe churches should NOT be tax
exempt is the religious frauds that exist. Church leaders have committed so
much fraud people's heads would spin if they were to be told the truth of the
matter and would believe it. I have experienced the power ministers and world
famous evangelists have over people. People turn a blind eye to known sins. In
some cases, they refuse to even acknowledge the facts when they see it all with
their own eyes. My own former church affiliation was literally taken over by a
few mob like gangsters who bled it dry, setting up shell companies around the
world, and liquidated its holdings as well as its campuses upon the death of
its former sole commander. It was unbelievable to see billions of tithe dollars
given by the faithful through a mandatory three tithe system (some were so poor
they ate one meal a day in order to meet their tithe quotas and give extra-large
donations during holy day offerings). It was scandalous. While the work of the
founders was done in good intent, extravagant lifestyles set a standard all
subsequent generation of ministers came to believe was owed to them for their
"position". Now, there stands a splintering of believers all over the
world with a handful of the "corporates" who mimic the original
church structure. Each suffer the same afflictions as did the mother church:
tax exempt status-huge donation intakes-paid salaries of
male ministers-extravagant spending-minister worship by lay members-and the
final result often being the lording over by one of these men over a local
congregation where lay members are viewed as cash cows to keep faithful and
loyal to their particular church to keep those tithe dollars flowing. Anyone
who opposes these teachings or system are publicly marked or blackballed in
elaborate attempts to keep the whole control. Can you imagine ministers whose
main concern is keeping tithe dollars coming in so they can keep paying
themselves? No wonder former Christians are leaving organizations for atheism
or paganism. Such evils should never exist in the body of Christ.
Why aren't more people concerned about developing the faithful
and believers to their greatest spiritual and physical development?
In a Sabbath church I visited not long ago, the majority of
members suffered horrible financial maladies. My first response was to pose the
challenge to get all of them involved in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace
University (www.daveramsey.com) and teach them how to live within their budget,
generate their own income, and to get out of the cycle of debt. Such an idea
would never be accepted because they genuinely believe money is evil and all
profit should be given to the church. I call this concept the "doctrine of
poverty". It is a twisted theology in which the wealthy are considered
evil and the poverty stricken true Disciples of Christ. Part of this theology
error was generated by ministries who promote heavy tithing and donations.
Isn't it interesting how churches that teach this only have LAY MEMBERS
practice it but the leaders live like movies stars?
Another aspect to the financial problem and tithes is the
mainstream protestant churches who outright reject the Ten Commandments and
other scriptural laws as mandatory for the "new covenant" time period
in which we live, yet they demand tithes to be given by their members. Upon a
recent visit to a Sunday church located in Chapel Hill, NC called Grace Church,
I found their overall quality and diversity of programs to be inspiring and
noteworthy of example for other mainstream and Sabbath churches. However,
doctrine wise, they stressed the focus on Grace alone and not works, but almost
every church meeting had a call out for offerings of the faithful. They had a
whole video session set up in order to lure new believers to make tithing their
first act of faith. This really cracked me up considering how such churches
argue against the validity of the necessity to teach REPENTANCE FROM SIN AND
AVOIDANCE OF FUTURE SIN, as they teach grace covers all so there is no sin
anymore. Even though Christ supposedly nailed the laws of God to the cross at his death, did somehow TITHING escape this execution? The seeking of money by churches has
corrupted its spiritual core.
While each church can choose whatever they want to teach
doctrinally and they can handle their financial matters any way they see fit,(as we live a free society)
these organizations are BUSINESSES and should be taxed accordingly. One of my
former students jokingly said church was good business. How right he was!
I named this blog a tithe of hope. I hope if people choose
to tithe, they make sure that money is actually going to programs that promote
the spreading of the message of Christ as Messiah, and of the coming Kingdom of
God to rule all nations, and of the Bible as the sole source of spiritual
truth. I hope tithe money is spent on the disabled elderly and the orphaned
child. I hope programs are created to teach believers the whole concept of
individual responsibility both physically, financially, and spiritually.
Imagine if every church goer got off of federal assistance and went on to teach
someone else to do the same, all at the same time, leading the others to Christ
and scripture alone, not to their particular preacher or denomination of
choice. What a changed society we would live in!
