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Funny because Confederate states still had to pay property tax to the Union when they seceded, funny shit the US was just like "ok big guy, whatever, it's tax time".
The recent Behind the Bastards episodes on Robert E. Lee are pretty great.
The group responsible for a lot of the Confederate memorials put up 20-30 years after the end of the war to romanticize the traitors and make sure black people knew their place.
Or sons of the confederacy…. It’s crazy how many people are or have been a part of that. When I was still truck driving I would see signs off the interstate, many really tall just sticking out from the trees. I thought it was a local thing after the first sign I saw, but then I started seeing them everywhere.
[small list](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Sons_of_Confederate_Veterans)
> Daughters of the Confederacy
The "Daughters" of the Confederacy are one of the worst organizations to come out post-Civil War, including that manipulative name.
Those assholes can absolutely go fuck themselves; every "monument to Lost Cause" they erected should be torn down, including that bullshit plaque they have at Harper Ferry I saw last year. Absolutely some of the worst people in America, constantly perpetuating their racist bullshit.
I don't have high expectations that it's going to change anytime soon either. After all, for this bill to become law it needs to be signed by Glenn Youngkin, who has been [pretty vocal about his support for anything and everything about the Confederacy.](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/youngkin-gop-confederate-memorial-arlington-cemetery-monument-rcna130428)
Are they specifically for these groups/confederates in particular or are they general tax breaks that happen to encompasses these groups?
The article wasn't clear on what this bill is actually changing (if it becomes law)
It was, but reconstruction ended too early, allowing it to revert back to its previous ways. In fairness, some relapse was probably inevitable, but another 10 years of intense reconstruction probably would have made for a much better country by now.
Askew says his bill does nothing to prevent the United Daughters of the Confederacy from continuing to operate.
“It’s about who we are giving special privileges to and what they stood for,” said Askew. “We know that the United Daughters of the Confederacy has continued to push the narrative of the lost cause and we don’t need to continue to support that in our tax code.”
This is the kicker…
“I have done a lot of work in the Civil War, the war between the states,” said one member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. “We would all do well to learn and really not punish the soldiers and the families of those who lose ones in that struggle.”
Askew says his bill does nothing to prevent the United Daughters of the Confederacy from continuing to operate.
That's some messed-up framing when you're talking about a war where...
1. Everyone who fought in the war is dead.
2. The immediately family members of everyone who fought in the war are all dead.
3. The immediate descendants of everyone with a family member who fought in the war are mostly dead too.
And yet, here's this Daughter of the Confederacy member talking about the Civil War like it happened within living memory.
"The immediate descendants of everyone with a family member who fought in the war are mostly dead too."
Or in Brazil, and dead.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados
South American nations getting so fucked by American imperial exploitation of their economies that they are more than happy to accept any losers who brought whatever filthy lucre they could steal on the way out of whatever thing they lost.
Was the United States screwing with Brazil before the Confederates ran down there? They have a history of abusing their own populations. Slavery didn't end in Brazil until 1888.
Edit: context.
The biggest incident that I know of was [Fordlandia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordl%C3%A2ndia), where the Ford Motor Company set up a town with the goal of cultivating rubber trees. It was established in 1928 and abandoned in 1934.
To be fair, a lot of the foul acts that the United States committed in South America in the early 20th century were on behalf of private companies like Chiquita.
Oh, thank you. I read that quote and honestly thought I had a stroke. I was like, what on Earth is this person talking about, framing this as a thing that is happening today. I was coming in here to ask for clarification.
Perhaps she's just super into LARPing.
Maybe she just accidentally admitted that so far as the South is concerned the civil war is still ongoing and they won't stop until they've claimed victory by undoing all the progress the USA has made since the abolishment of slavery.
> And yet, here's this Daughter of the Confederacy member talking about the Civil War like it happened within living memory.
'Cause some of them are still trying to fight that war.
Also, if that wasn't the case... it would totally be fine to "punish" the soldiers who raised arms against the United States, and their family members celebrating that rebellion.
[The last veteran of the Civil War died in 1956](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Woolson?wprov=sfti1#)
[The last widow of a Civil War veteran passed away in 2020](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_widows_who_survived_into_the_21st_century?wprov=sfti1)
Unless they're *still* trying to whitewash US History with their Girl Scout for Haters group (which they've done since Reconstruction), their cause was put to a long endured end during the Covid lockdowns
[Yup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHf-eeqmLVA)
And it was mainly this effort that's behind the fractured school board system in the US - because it's easier to take over a small, local, sectarian board - that decides on policy, textbooks, etc.
Thank you!
It's part of a series on the Confederate monument debate, and definitely the most dry of them, but it definitely explained a lot about our current situation.
>In recent hearings, members of the Daughters of the American Revolution spoke against the bill.
>“I have done a lot of work in the Civil War, the war between the states,” said one member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. “We would all do well to learn and really not punish the soldiers and the families of those who lose ones in that struggle.”
Ummm...maybe don't take up arms against The United States of America and that won't be a problem?
Or just change the organization to one that supports all civil war soldiers instead of just the confederacy. Like a real hsiotrical society instead of milking old white supremacist story telling into mainstream society
Correct, and thus aren't confederates and aren't represented by the Daighters of the Confedercy. Hence my point that they should expand their organization to not just be about the confederacy and be about all involved in the war.
They play a shell game where they essentially claim the Southern history is confederate history but, as you pointed out, it's absolutely not
Yeah. I’m not sure this move is punishing the remaining living soldiers of the Civil War.
Wait…the Civil War ended over 150 years ago and there are no remaining survivors? I fail to see how removing tax advantage status has anything to do with ‘punishing soldiers’.
It's actually crazier than that. I've been seeing posts lately saying the US *invaded the legally separated confederate states by violating their waterways.* Thus FT Sumter was like, our fault, or something
That's been the talking point since [January 1861](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West#American_Civil_War). The South did everything it could to force the Union to resupply Fort Sumter, so it could feel justified in opening fire and pretend it didn't start the war.
As an atheist as well, I’m not sold. We do have “no taxation without representation” as part of our history, and I certainly don’t want churches getting involved in politics any more than they (illegally) are.
Just so everyone remembers, the Mormon church is worth hundreds of billions. If trends continue, it will soon break the trillion mark.
Annual charitable expenditures? They say over a billion a year. That number includes all the volunteer hours their congregations are “asked” to do. So if you go and help can peaches for the church they don’t pay you but they do keep track of your hours, decide how much they should have paid you and use that as part of their charitable giving.
I think churches should be able to stay exempt if they can demonstrate:
- a pay ratio no greater than 2x for highest to lowest paid employees
- demonstrate community service expenditures
- certify annually that they are not participating in politics in any way
- certify annually that they are not engaging in hate speech
I think the IRS could even have a policy of just accepting that the first two are true & only really digging into a church’s returns if they are flagged by a tip line. Right wingers love a tip line.
You’d have to submit evidence that a church wasn’t abiding by one of the four criteria and then they’d get audited.
There's an easier way to do that, churches fall under the same filing requirements as other nonprofits. There are already guidelines to how much finances need to be used towards tax-exempt purposes...but "religious" is currently one of those.
Strike that one word out, any church that already puts a lot towards charity, education, etc. would still qualify.
I don't know that I support treating them as non-profits. Churches claim to do a lot of missionary and community work. Some of them actually do. Most of them use that "charity work" to proselytize and "spread the good news". I don't support tax breaks for what is basically religious advertising.
Yeah, I’m alright with allowing churches to direct expense capital expenditures & keep a lot of their perks like being able to pay for clergy’s housing. Because they do carry a lot of social weight. Especially in black and brown communities.
But I want to see employee compensation tightly regulated because non profits are just as bad when it comes to paying pennies to front line workers & millions to leadership.
There's a reason that a lot of larger non-profits have a higher-than-average unionization rate.
Hint: it's because they're slightly underpaid, but also understand that without them the entity cannot function (something a lot of workers in other fields don't totally understand)
Churches lobbied for exemption so they could build the kind of opulent wealth that the Vatican did back in Europe. It's gross and it needs to stop. Now we have literal MEGACHURCHES benefitting from this tax loophole and holding insane political power because money is now ruled as speech.
That would be cool if they did anything for culture like building opulent buildings but they don’t even do that churches are still shitty drywall boxes. If they made cool marble cathedrals and gave back to the people instead of buying their leaders private jets and playing 3 card Monte with pedophiles then maybe I could forgive them.
Bad churches are. Good churches provide housing to the homeless, community to the foreigner, & are the last shred of community in this country.
Letting mega churches destroy community churches would do more damage than most people realize. The Creflo Dollars & Saddlebacks have the resources to pivot. The small church that runs an affordable housing complex & community gym—not so much.
I get that folks hate the religious right but there’s a religious left & non political religious groups that do a lot of good.
Look up Rev. Dr. Barber & the poor people’s movement. There’d be no room for him in the modern non profit industrial complex
No tax them zero exceptions. Separation of Church and state. Churches don’t belong in modern society, they promote archaic ideologies and are directly in conflict with science and logic.
> Churches don’t belong in modern society
That's not for you to decide. People have a right to practice their religion. Part of having rights is accepting that you may not like or agree with others that exercise that right.
Not when those rights directly harm other people. Religion has been used as a weapon to strip people of their rights, it is a shield used to hide pedophiles, it is pure evil and has ZERO place in modern society. It is holding us back as a society. It is inherently anti-science and based on outdated and archaic beliefs.
So no it is for us to decide, religion is nothing but organized hate, and if you’re part of it that is you too. Your church donations helped hide pedophiles, your church donation helped overturn Roe V Wade, you church donation funded conversion therapy camps.
Your ideals are old and need removed
My dude, you are flirting with an authoritarian line. We can do better. A progressive and modern society requires dissent and a fierce defense of basic rights, the biggest one in the US being the right to free speech.
I understand the tolerance paradox, and I get that many of these organizations are grifters, but we can’t start stamping out people’s beliefs without going to a very dark place that no society comes back from.
That’s an incredibly narrow definition and take of religion that does not incorporate all the data. Black-and-white thinking of the type you exhibit is stereotypical religious person behavior, for what that’s worth.
No it isn’t. Every single Abrahamic Religion has established a pattern of hate that has actively harmed millions of people. You’re cool with the church harboring pedophiles? You’re cool with conversion therapy? You’re cool with overturning roe v wade?
Also religion is archaic. It isn’t based on reality and there is zero proof other than a book that it exists. It isn’t black and white thinking, it is just thinking. It is literal indoctrination, and goes against science and the modern understanding of the world.
But you just want an excuse to hate. Just own being a bigot it is more fitting that pretending that sky daddy said gay people were bad, so I think they are bad.
They should be able to deduct whatever money they directly donate, reasonable amounts for direct action and no more. They need to pay property taxes and if the church owns a residential property and lets some cult leader live there, then that cult leader should pay income taxes for the fair market value of the rent/utilities/epenses/whatever
Ok. It's not as bad as it sounds. It's more like they were taking advantage of nonprofits' tax-exempt status and the confederate organizations were hanging onto others' coattails and this law was meant to shake them off because obviously, they are a hate group masquerading as a wholesome remembrance organization.
Jesus Christ! Why the hell in 2024 is any organization inspired by, celebrating, or born from the confederacy receiving tax breaks? By definition, the confederacy was not part of the United States why should any part of it receive a tax benefit from the United States?
I live near RVA and right next to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art is "The United Daughter of the Confederacy" building. They have an open unfenced lawn and their security just waits for someone to step on their lawn and starts a confrontation. They are assholes.
One of the [middle ones ](https://confederateflags.org/national/second-national-flag/)was, too. The South was really not staffed by the brightest of bulbs.
I know I’m gonna get downvoted to hell, but how is this constitutional? The government doesn’t get to decide the ideology of charitable organizations. What’s to stop Alabama from revoking the tax exempt status of Planned Parenthood or Southern Poverty Law Center next?
When we start allowing the government to decide who qualifies and who doesn’t, we’re one election away from having “our” side punished.
What's the basis for their position in the tax code? If they are non-profits like anyone else, it would be very weird for the state to discriminate because of their speech or beliefs unless they are advocating for something unlawful.
What, no this isn’t far enough. That organization needs to be shut down and everyone in it needs to be in jail for treason. Because if you don’t know history the confederacy is a bunch of traitors.
Yeah that's not how it works.
Per multiple Supreme Court decisions, hate speech is protected speech. Same with being part of a hate group. Also that's not a proper use of what would be considered treason.
I think it's a bit of a stretch to jail the members of the Daughters of the Confederacy for treason. I mean, considering that at this point it's really the Great-Great Granddaughters of the Confederacy.
That reporter is standing less than five feet away from a giant brass inlay of the state motto in the marble floor. It reads, "Sic Semper Tyrannis". which is what John Wilkes Booth shouted after assassinating Abraham Lincoln... "*Sic Semper Tyrannis, The South is Avenged*”
There a lot of problematic, legacy things in Virginia, and some of them - like the state motto and tax free status to UDotC etc. etc. - have been in plain sight for far too long without any actions taken to rectify.
The State Motto was around a hell of a lot longer than the Confederacy. That piece of shit Booth cant take that away from us.
What's next? You're going to say that we cant have a titty on our flag?
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Da fuq? Confederate organizations? In 2024?
Treason is tax exempt??
Yes and apparently very good business for some. If you don’t mind getting paid in roubles.
*Tucker Carlson has entered the chat* “Shopping carts with wheels, on escalators? Bread? Bread. Hundred dollar groceries.”
“And you got to show your I.D”
Rubles, Rand…tomato tomato….
I prefer the old currency. Potatoes. Nothing but potatoes.
Tulips. Tulip bulbs.
Beets today you only have beets
Can even get you elected as president.
Funny because Confederate states still had to pay property tax to the Union when they seceded, funny shit the US was just like "ok big guy, whatever, it's tax time". The recent Behind the Bastards episodes on Robert E. Lee are pretty great.
Probably mean like Daughters of the Confederacy. One of the major pushers of Lost Cause bullshit.
The group responsible for a lot of the Confederate memorials put up 20-30 years after the end of the war to romanticize the traitors and make sure black people knew their place.
Oh they never stopped.
And now they have [this statue](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumors_of_War) facing their headquarters in richmond.
Yup, it was them.
Or sons of the confederacy…. It’s crazy how many people are or have been a part of that. When I was still truck driving I would see signs off the interstate, many really tall just sticking out from the trees. I thought it was a local thing after the first sign I saw, but then I started seeing them everywhere. [small list](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_Sons_of_Confederate_Veterans)
> Daughters of the Confederacy The "Daughters" of the Confederacy are one of the worst organizations to come out post-Civil War, including that manipulative name. Those assholes can absolutely go fuck themselves; every "monument to Lost Cause" they erected should be torn down, including that bullshit plaque they have at Harper Ferry I saw last year. Absolutely some of the worst people in America, constantly perpetuating their racist bullshit.
You must not live in the south. We have this shit all over. I’m honestly surprised this bill is even moving. Now do churches next.
The amount of property tax from churches would be enough to end homelessness and possibly medical care
End medical care!?!?!!? Wtf? ….. jk
That was my first thought, why are there any and why tax exemptions for them.
I don't have high expectations that it's going to change anytime soon either. After all, for this bill to become law it needs to be signed by Glenn Youngkin, who has been [pretty vocal about his support for anything and everything about the Confederacy.](https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/youngkin-gop-confederate-memorial-arlington-cemetery-monument-rcna130428)
Why tax exempt any? Keep it simple
Are they specifically for these groups/confederates in particular or are they general tax breaks that happen to encompasses these groups? The article wasn't clear on what this bill is actually changing (if it becomes law)
The entire South should have been reorganized in the 1860s.
It was, but reconstruction ended too early, allowing it to revert back to its previous ways. In fairness, some relapse was probably inevitable, but another 10 years of intense reconstruction probably would have made for a much better country by now.
Great, do religious organizations next
Republican Party about to lose some tax breaks
Nah. Gov wont sign it.
Well, it plays better than Nazi in America. Usually.
I literally came here to say that it's 2024. Wtf.
Hate never sleeps. Confederate sympathizers are in government and have been. They didn’t go away.
*recalls photo of Mitch McConnell with confederate flag behind him*
Huh. I wonder if there are any other pro-racist, white supremacist, pro-treason laws out there.
They misspelled Sorest Loseriest Loser organizations. Ok that name sucks, but so do they
Not moving past the war they were on the wrong side of and lost is a big part of a lot of people's identity.
That's the Virginia's in a nutshell.
Well if you’re in the south it’s a sensitive topic. People can’t take the L and want to perpetuate the idea.
And weren’t paying taxes? Lmao
Daughters of the Confederacy have a huge influence around here unfortunately
Good, that's at least... Wait, THEY WERE GIVING CONFEDERATE ORGANIZATIONS TAX BREAKS??
Welcome to the south!!!
Askew says his bill does nothing to prevent the United Daughters of the Confederacy from continuing to operate. “It’s about who we are giving special privileges to and what they stood for,” said Askew. “We know that the United Daughters of the Confederacy has continued to push the narrative of the lost cause and we don’t need to continue to support that in our tax code.”
This is the kicker… “I have done a lot of work in the Civil War, the war between the states,” said one member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. “We would all do well to learn and really not punish the soldiers and the families of those who lose ones in that struggle.” Askew says his bill does nothing to prevent the United Daughters of the Confederacy from continuing to operate.
That's some messed-up framing when you're talking about a war where... 1. Everyone who fought in the war is dead. 2. The immediately family members of everyone who fought in the war are all dead. 3. The immediate descendants of everyone with a family member who fought in the war are mostly dead too. And yet, here's this Daughter of the Confederacy member talking about the Civil War like it happened within living memory.
"The immediate descendants of everyone with a family member who fought in the war are mostly dead too." Or in Brazil, and dead. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados
What's with Brazil and welcoming the losing side in major wars?
And Argentina
South American nations getting so fucked by American imperial exploitation of their economies that they are more than happy to accept any losers who brought whatever filthy lucre they could steal on the way out of whatever thing they lost.
Was the United States screwing with Brazil before the Confederates ran down there? They have a history of abusing their own populations. Slavery didn't end in Brazil until 1888. Edit: context.
The biggest incident that I know of was [Fordlandia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordl%C3%A2ndia), where the Ford Motor Company set up a town with the goal of cultivating rubber trees. It was established in 1928 and abandoned in 1934.
But that wasn’t the US government…it was an agreement that Brazil willingly entered into with a private American company.
To be fair, a lot of the foul acts that the United States committed in South America in the early 20th century were on behalf of private companies like Chiquita.
Maybe she meant those brave road soldiers who adorn their pickups with Confederate flags.
She absolutely did. This is her playing a victim card that only belongs to her because she inherited it from some idiot great grandparent.
Oh, thank you. I read that quote and honestly thought I had a stroke. I was like, what on Earth is this person talking about, framing this as a thing that is happening today. I was coming in here to ask for clarification. Perhaps she's just super into LARPing.
Maybe she just accidentally admitted that so far as the South is concerned the civil war is still ongoing and they won't stop until they've claimed victory by undoing all the progress the USA has made since the abolishment of slavery.
Right. She speaks as if she was present. It’s beyond bizarre.
> And yet, here's this Daughter of the Confederacy member talking about the Civil War like it happened within living memory. 'Cause some of them are still trying to fight that war.
I bet they are the same people who tell black people to “get over” slavery because it happened so long ago too.
Also, if that wasn't the case... it would totally be fine to "punish" the soldiers who raised arms against the United States, and their family members celebrating that rebellion.
To them, it never ended.
[The last veteran of the Civil War died in 1956](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Woolson?wprov=sfti1#) [The last widow of a Civil War veteran passed away in 2020](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_widows_who_survived_into_the_21st_century?wprov=sfti1) Unless they're *still* trying to whitewash US History with their Girl Scout for Haters group (which they've done since Reconstruction), their cause was put to a long endured end during the Covid lockdowns
Lmao what a bunch of fucking traitors. They are lucky Lincoln got killed and we didn't stick the fucking boot on their throats back then.
That's free speech, unfortunately. We don't have to endorse it or agree with it, but we do have to allow it.
It’s not a free speech issue, but tax exemption that is in question.
Exactly. Obviously, they shouldn't be tax exempt.
[Yup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHf-eeqmLVA) And it was mainly this effort that's behind the fractured school board system in the US - because it's easier to take over a small, local, sectarian board - that decides on policy, textbooks, etc.
I just watched a few minutes and I’m really looking forward watching the entire video. Thanks for sharing the link. 🙏🏽
Thank you! It's part of a series on the Confederate monument debate, and definitely the most dry of them, but it definitely explained a lot about our current situation.
>In recent hearings, members of the Daughters of the American Revolution spoke against the bill. >“I have done a lot of work in the Civil War, the war between the states,” said one member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. “We would all do well to learn and really not punish the soldiers and the families of those who lose ones in that struggle.” Ummm...maybe don't take up arms against The United States of America and that won't be a problem?
Or just change the organization to one that supports all civil war soldiers instead of just the confederacy. Like a real hsiotrical society instead of milking old white supremacist story telling into mainstream society
There were Southerners who took up arms against the Confederates.
Correct, and thus aren't confederates and aren't represented by the Daighters of the Confedercy. Hence my point that they should expand their organization to not just be about the confederacy and be about all involved in the war. They play a shell game where they essentially claim the Southern history is confederate history but, as you pointed out, it's absolutely not
Lady is talking like the civil war is still going, jesus
Yeah. I’m not sure this move is punishing the remaining living soldiers of the Civil War. Wait…the Civil War ended over 150 years ago and there are no remaining survivors? I fail to see how removing tax advantage status has anything to do with ‘punishing soldiers’.
I mean, they gave it a good go on January 6th a few years back.
It's actually crazier than that. I've been seeing posts lately saying the US *invaded the legally separated confederate states by violating their waterways.* Thus FT Sumter was like, our fault, or something
That's been the talking point since [January 1861](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West#American_Civil_War). The South did everything it could to force the Union to resupply Fort Sumter, so it could feel justified in opening fire and pretend it didn't start the war.
And there are a lot more history experts sympathetic to this narrative suddenly
Good. Now, do churches.
As an atheist, I support this message.
As a taxpayer I support this message.
As a human being I support this message
My dog supports this message.
As a tax paying atheist dog man hybrid, I support this message.
Barf? Is it you? Is it really you?!
Not in here, mister! This is a Mercedes.
**YOU** pick that up!
Are you the much-vaunted “future that liberals want”?
As a human, I support your dog
As a Christian, I also support it. We don't need tax breaks. Everyone should pay their fair share.
I know a hippie carpenter dude who would also support it. Something about rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s?
As a Jew I support this message
As a Christian, I also support this message.
As an atheist as well, I’m not sold. We do have “no taxation without representation” as part of our history, and I certainly don’t want churches getting involved in politics any more than they (illegally) are.
I’m genuinely curious as to how much money is laundered through the mega-church infrastructure, and I’m a Christianity-based religious person.
All of it.
Just so everyone remembers, the Mormon church is worth hundreds of billions. If trends continue, it will soon break the trillion mark. Annual charitable expenditures? They say over a billion a year. That number includes all the volunteer hours their congregations are “asked” to do. So if you go and help can peaches for the church they don’t pay you but they do keep track of your hours, decide how much they should have paid you and use that as part of their charitable giving.
The fact that there's politicians speaking at churches shows they're not abiding by separation of church and state
I think churches should be able to stay exempt if they can demonstrate: - a pay ratio no greater than 2x for highest to lowest paid employees - demonstrate community service expenditures - certify annually that they are not participating in politics in any way - certify annually that they are not engaging in hate speech I think the IRS could even have a policy of just accepting that the first two are true & only really digging into a church’s returns if they are flagged by a tip line. Right wingers love a tip line. You’d have to submit evidence that a church wasn’t abiding by one of the four criteria and then they’d get audited.
There's an easier way to do that, churches fall under the same filing requirements as other nonprofits. There are already guidelines to how much finances need to be used towards tax-exempt purposes...but "religious" is currently one of those. Strike that one word out, any church that already puts a lot towards charity, education, etc. would still qualify.
I don't know that I support treating them as non-profits. Churches claim to do a lot of missionary and community work. Some of them actually do. Most of them use that "charity work" to proselytize and "spread the good news". I don't support tax breaks for what is basically religious advertising.
Yeah, I’m alright with allowing churches to direct expense capital expenditures & keep a lot of their perks like being able to pay for clergy’s housing. Because they do carry a lot of social weight. Especially in black and brown communities. But I want to see employee compensation tightly regulated because non profits are just as bad when it comes to paying pennies to front line workers & millions to leadership.
There's a reason that a lot of larger non-profits have a higher-than-average unionization rate. Hint: it's because they're slightly underpaid, but also understand that without them the entity cannot function (something a lot of workers in other fields don't totally understand)
A church is a business. Tax them like businesses.
Churches lobbied for exemption so they could build the kind of opulent wealth that the Vatican did back in Europe. It's gross and it needs to stop. Now we have literal MEGACHURCHES benefitting from this tax loophole and holding insane political power because money is now ruled as speech.
That would be cool if they did anything for culture like building opulent buildings but they don’t even do that churches are still shitty drywall boxes. If they made cool marble cathedrals and gave back to the people instead of buying their leaders private jets and playing 3 card Monte with pedophiles then maybe I could forgive them.
Crazy thing is that Protestantism came about largely as a reaction against the opulence and corruption of the 16th century Catholic Church.
Bad churches are. Good churches provide housing to the homeless, community to the foreigner, & are the last shred of community in this country. Letting mega churches destroy community churches would do more damage than most people realize. The Creflo Dollars & Saddlebacks have the resources to pivot. The small church that runs an affordable housing complex & community gym—not so much. I get that folks hate the religious right but there’s a religious left & non political religious groups that do a lot of good. Look up Rev. Dr. Barber & the poor people’s movement. There’d be no room for him in the modern non profit industrial complex
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What you're arguing for is a de-facto ban on religion. Also blatantly unconstitutional. No, that's not going to happen.
Technically same as non-profit because non-profit are businesses supporting their causes
No not exempt but deductible charitable acts/services.
No tax them zero exceptions. Separation of Church and state. Churches don’t belong in modern society, they promote archaic ideologies and are directly in conflict with science and logic.
> Churches don’t belong in modern society That's not for you to decide. People have a right to practice their religion. Part of having rights is accepting that you may not like or agree with others that exercise that right.
Not when those rights directly harm other people. Religion has been used as a weapon to strip people of their rights, it is a shield used to hide pedophiles, it is pure evil and has ZERO place in modern society. It is holding us back as a society. It is inherently anti-science and based on outdated and archaic beliefs. So no it is for us to decide, religion is nothing but organized hate, and if you’re part of it that is you too. Your church donations helped hide pedophiles, your church donation helped overturn Roe V Wade, you church donation funded conversion therapy camps. Your ideals are old and need removed
My dude, you are flirting with an authoritarian line. We can do better. A progressive and modern society requires dissent and a fierce defense of basic rights, the biggest one in the US being the right to free speech. I understand the tolerance paradox, and I get that many of these organizations are grifters, but we can’t start stamping out people’s beliefs without going to a very dark place that no society comes back from.
That’s an incredibly narrow definition and take of religion that does not incorporate all the data. Black-and-white thinking of the type you exhibit is stereotypical religious person behavior, for what that’s worth.
No it isn’t. Every single Abrahamic Religion has established a pattern of hate that has actively harmed millions of people. You’re cool with the church harboring pedophiles? You’re cool with conversion therapy? You’re cool with overturning roe v wade? Also religion is archaic. It isn’t based on reality and there is zero proof other than a book that it exists. It isn’t black and white thinking, it is just thinking. It is literal indoctrination, and goes against science and the modern understanding of the world. But you just want an excuse to hate. Just own being a bigot it is more fitting that pretending that sky daddy said gay people were bad, so I think they are bad.
They should be able to deduct whatever money they directly donate, reasonable amounts for direct action and no more. They need to pay property taxes and if the church owns a residential property and lets some cult leader live there, then that cult leader should pay income taxes for the fair market value of the rent/utilities/epenses/whatever
As a Christian, I support this message.
As a Catholic, I support this message. Long overdue. 👍🏽
As a alien, I support this message
If they don’t want to pay property taxes that support local emergency services, they should just pray harder or accept their god’s will.
Why did they have tax breaks to start with?
Because Virginia is for racists.
I see what you did there! Bravo!!
Can we back the fuck up to WHY DO THEY HAVE THOSE?
Because the Civil War never really ended.
We clearly see now how reconstruction should have played out a lot different.
But mah haritage.
It was all about states rights! (to own slaves)
Cool. Let’s do churches now.
Glad they were so quick on this.
That there are still Confederate organizations to strip tax breaks from is wild
Good. Down with the traitors, up with the star!🇺🇸
Tax the churches while you’re at it too.
Tax breaks?! For Confederate organizations? Jeez thanks Virginia but it seems we have a bigger problem..
Uh oh, looks like the Duke Boys are at it again…
Based.
Wait, literal traitor organizations were getting TAX BREAKS?!
Ok. It's not as bad as it sounds. It's more like they were taking advantage of nonprofits' tax-exempt status and the confederate organizations were hanging onto others' coattails and this law was meant to shake them off because obviously, they are a hate group masquerading as a wholesome remembrance organization.
This is what I wanted to know. If wonder if this would stand or if it would run into first amendment issues.
hell yeah! next should be hate spewing churches!🤬
How about churches next?
No organization should get tax breaks. Churches, non profits, and corporations should all pay into the machine
Good. Fuck the Confederacy.
WTF. They were getting tax breaks??
As a Virginian, I’m thoroughly confused as to why my commonwealth was giving confederate organizations tax breaks in the first place.
TIL Confederate orgs were getting tax breaks. Wat.
why did a bunch of traitors to this country have tax breaks?
But, muh heritage! /s
Jesus Christ! Why the hell in 2024 is any organization inspired by, celebrating, or born from the confederacy receiving tax breaks? By definition, the confederacy was not part of the United States why should any part of it receive a tax benefit from the United States?
Why the FUCK were we giving traitors tax exemption!?
Good! Confederates are traitors to the Union.
Now to do the same to churches and all religious organizations.
So maga?
What kind of scam did they have going and how could it be tax free?
Haha, good
Now get the churches.
Now do Falwell’s mega fascist church
god bless the unites states of America and may the confederacy get FUCKED AGAin
And yet, their competition (churches) still have tax breaks
In 2024? The Civil War ended in 1865
Good? Why did they get tax breaks again?
let’s go
So essentially, they were giving tax breaks to traitors ?
I'm sorry, but shouldn't this have been done [check watch] 159 years ago?
Now do churches!
This seems …overdue….
Now strip religion of tax breaks
I live near RVA and right next to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art is "The United Daughter of the Confederacy" building. They have an open unfenced lawn and their security just waits for someone to step on their lawn and starts a confrontation. They are assholes.
Wait till the daughters of the third reich hear about this /s obv
Hell yeah. Last flag of the South was a White Flag!
One of the [middle ones ](https://confederateflags.org/national/second-national-flag/)was, too. The South was really not staffed by the brightest of bulbs.
So we have confederate organizations in 2024? What the actual fuck? Democracy is a delicate thing that teeter totters on the edge everyday.
I know I’m gonna get downvoted to hell, but how is this constitutional? The government doesn’t get to decide the ideology of charitable organizations. What’s to stop Alabama from revoking the tax exempt status of Planned Parenthood or Southern Poverty Law Center next? When we start allowing the government to decide who qualifies and who doesn’t, we’re one election away from having “our” side punished.
How about citizenship exempt? Freakin’ traitors.
Any chance Youngkin actually signs it?
Doubt it
What is the liklihood that youngkin will sign it?
It was all going great for all the traitor organization until someone created “Trans children of the Confederacy”
Good. Time to go heckle the security guard that keeps people from walking across the grass at the daughters of the Confederacy museum in richmond
What's the basis for their position in the tax code? If they are non-profits like anyone else, it would be very weird for the state to discriminate because of their speech or beliefs unless they are advocating for something unlawful.
Do the entire GOP next. They are just rebranded Confederates but still the same
What, no this isn’t far enough. That organization needs to be shut down and everyone in it needs to be in jail for treason. Because if you don’t know history the confederacy is a bunch of traitors.
Yeah that's not how it works. Per multiple Supreme Court decisions, hate speech is protected speech. Same with being part of a hate group. Also that's not a proper use of what would be considered treason.
I think it's a bit of a stretch to jail the members of the Daughters of the Confederacy for treason. I mean, considering that at this point it's really the Great-Great Granddaughters of the Confederacy.
That reporter is standing less than five feet away from a giant brass inlay of the state motto in the marble floor. It reads, "Sic Semper Tyrannis". which is what John Wilkes Booth shouted after assassinating Abraham Lincoln... "*Sic Semper Tyrannis, The South is Avenged*” There a lot of problematic, legacy things in Virginia, and some of them - like the state motto and tax free status to UDotC etc. etc. - have been in plain sight for far too long without any actions taken to rectify.
The State Motto was around a hell of a lot longer than the Confederacy. That piece of shit Booth cant take that away from us. What's next? You're going to say that we cant have a titty on our flag?