feel free to change the first amendment. heck, it CLEARLY states it: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; also, YOU are free to make all the tax deductible, charitable contributions you would like as well. i am all for you helping others outside the church if that helps.
To add to the thread, this time Mormons: https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve...619bd2-2004-11ea-86f3-3b5019d451db_story.html
That was sarcasm, right? OTOH, I could definitely see the terminally gullible falling for such an interpretation.
That isn't all that surprising. IIRC, the Mormon Church is actually one of the largest landowners in Florida.
A hit piece from WaPo, no way they would print an article without any docs or evidence. Claimed the church charitable giving was not publicly available. LDS spends over $40 million a year on humanitarian aid. https://kutv.com/news/local/latter-...lion-in-aid-to-the-needy-throughout-the-world Some interesting responses in this thread. I see some beebers crying the gov't is wasting taxpayers money on social programs but also disparaging a major player that provides social programs outside of the gov't. So if you eliminate the churches, who is going to help provide for the poor children and old folks in need?
With out a doubt. Government needs to get out of the way and cease being an active “provider” and let the private sector do more. The churches in my area do far more good by contributing and donating work, food and clothes to the local shelters etc. and on several occasions directly to those in need. They are also significantly more efficient with performing these task as well. I’m truly amazed by the level of generosity that people give. Not like the government who spends more on administrative cost etc and only delivers 20 cents or less on the dollar. The government is as much of a blight on the majority of the people for the small amount they are of help to the others. Of course the government workers are taken care of. Everyone else, not so much.
So the senior portfolio manager for the fund, who had worked there for 9 years, has presented evidence to the IRS. He left the LDS and is scorching the earth on his way out. Yes - there is a financial reward for him if the IRS finds wrong doing. 9 years is a lot of time to collect evidence. So the LDS have $100 Billion and have $40 million in humanitarian aid - that's like have $100,000 salary and donating $40/year to charity. Wow - that is some Biden like miserliness. The article you referenced stated $2 billion - which is admirable, but as a non-profit bringing in $7 billion, the math looks off. The topic isn't whether churches fill needs on social programs - they obviously do and are much more efficient that any .gov agency. It's the love of money that the churches display that churns my stomach.
It also churns my stomach. I only reference the article as rebuttal to no public info as your article reference. It is only one of many that can be found. The gist of the WaPo article is they amassed money but did not support charity which is false. LDS has around $6k per member in stockpiling reserve but the Scientology group has around $100k per member but where is the IRS/WaPo?
Someone can't math. This guy claims he estimates the LDS church holdings at ~$100B. That doesn't mean ~$100B per year. The LDS church has given over $2B to outside charities. Their own charities aren't included in that figure. The actual holdings are also closer to $40B according to real sources. So the percentage is quite a bit different than the above Biden-esque shitty public school math equation. The hit piece also misses out on the fact that none of what they have done is illegal. Just like the Trump witch hunt. But hey, sure, some guy trying to go "scorched Earth" because he got his feelers hurt and is looking for a payday.
I can see liberals responding along the lines of, this is the reason why healthcare should be free. The church wouldn’t have to pay for these people if the government would step in and make healthcare free.
Wellllllll... If you’d actually read the article, the church didn’t pay off anyone’s debts, they bought the debt ($5.3m) for $50,000, and discharged it. So the rest of us get to make up for the $5.25 million that wasn’t collected in higher rates. But hey, at least 5,555 people got a free lunch.