How Come the Mormon Church Has Not Lost It's Tax Exempt License?

[romantico]

I have a simple question. How can the Mormon Church influence elections and get involved in politics and STILL be tax exempt? Is there an organization trying to get it's tax exempt license revoked due to their involvement in political matters? Does not sound legal to me.

[truedelphi]

1. How can the Catholic Church? They constantly politicize the abortion issue

And even told Catholics who were voters for Kerry that they would be excommunicated.

I really wish the Federal Governmnet would yank the tax free provision from all these churches.

Every last one of them. Believing in an imaginary fellow in the sky should not serve as a tax haven for some group that has vast real estate and corporate holdings.

[demosincebirth]

2. I think you're cherry picking. Maybe a handful of clergy may have been vocal about Kerry

Definitely not the Church

[truedelphi]

3. Ask some one who relies on a Catholic hospital

If they can get an abortion at that hospital, and then Let me know about it.

The Mormons and Catholics are both anti-gay. And some of my local Seventh Day Adventist doctors take the time to lecture me about my pain meds. I want medicine from my doctors, not their religious beleifs about alchohol and narcotics.

[demosincebirth]

9. Abortion is a moral issue... we make it political. I don't know about

Mormons or SDAs.

[plantwomyn]

13. "We" don't make it political

The religious right makes it political. The right for a woman to choose whether or not to have an abortion is not a moral issue. It is a privacy issue. It all comes down to this...once a woman is pregnant, does she have the right to decide what to do with her own body?
The Supreme Court has said yes she does.
The irony that there are those who would defend the 2nd Amendment and deny that any state has the right to restrict the RKBA but in the same breath demand that their state restict a woman's right to choose should not be lost here.
This are the same religious majority that bankroll the referendums and Constitutional Amendments to deny same sex marriage.
We should truely seperate church and state and remove all tax exemtion for every religious institution. Not only are they tax exempt but contributions are tax exempt too. Thats way too much state support for voices of hate.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. Purportedly they were quite rigorous about following the law on such things

Not perfect , but damn close.

[tbyg52]

5. Then that particular law, as Dickens, was it?, said, is a ass. nt

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. The laws which govern the political involvement of tax exempt organizations is somewhat arcane

I often wonder why some of the African American mega churches have not run afoul of it as well

[plantwomyn]

14. It's hard to believe

when some have life size posters of Bush on the alter.

[Thothmes]

6. In which election has the Mormon Church. Inc

Supported specific candidates by either policy or financing?

[mitchtv]

8. You have the point

people get confused between supporting a candidate(s) and an issue. The latter is allowed.

[plantwomyn]

15. How would we know?

How many non mormons are allowed in the Temple during a service?

[SidneyCarton]

17. Well, since you asked so nicely...

First we throw live kittens into blenders. Then we light homeless people on fire as a sacrifice to Moloch. Then there are the naked cartwheels, followed closely by the feasting on green jello and marathon listening to the collected works of the Osmonds.

[plantwomyn]

22. That doesn't answer my question

but thanks for the Dickensian imagery.

[SidneyCarton]

24. FreeState has already answered your question...

and I would imagine his answer would have more weight than anything I would have to offer anyway, as he is both a member of the LGBT community, and a former member of the church. (Hence he has nothing to hide.)

[FreeState]

18. Well the temple does not have services were statements would be made

all the services in the Temples are scripted word for word - the most sacred of which believe it or not is a film. The only announcements I have ever encountered in a Temple were about the locker room being closed early.

The church's regular services are held in regular church buildings (usually called a Ward House or Stake Center) and anyone can attend those. Thats where all the announcements are made. :)

[keepCAblue]

7. Two reasons: Cooked books and Harry Reid. n/t

[WVRICK13]

11. WHY?

Because we live in a theocracy and our politicians are, for the most part, self serving.

[totodeinhere]

12. The Mormons are too powerful.

Even Harry Reid is a Mormon. Do you think that he would work to revoke their tax exempt status? And yes, the Catholic Church is also anti gay. It's in the official church doctrine that homosexual acts are a sin.

[SidneyCarton]

16. Which do you want more, justice or payback?

[FreeState]

19. Can there be true Justice without accountability? n/t

[SidneyCarton]

21. Clearly no.

But the urge to punish one's enemies is a strong one, and it often distracts us from loftier goals.

[FreeState]

25. I agree there

the week Prop 8 passed people were pissed and wanted blood. They still do. The biggest problem, which threads like this show, is that people do not understand the laws.

The LDS Church did not break the law by getting involved, donating money or demanding that members get involved. A church can campaign on any "issue", they can not however campaign for candidates. It may be the Church did not report all its "in kind donations" but thats not what most of the complaints about the LDS Church's involvement in Prop 8 are about (and its highly unlikely they did break the law - Californians Against Hate (CAH) played its card accusing the Church of not reporting all its involvement before the deadline for doing so had passed giving the Church time to go through its records and correcting any errors that may have been there before the deadline for the final report. One big problem I have with CAH is he - yes its just one person from what I can tell - he has a very strong anti-mormon bias that comes out in his press releases to the point its obvious he is very misinformed about the Church, not just doctrine but also history and how the church actually works, who is in charge of what etc).

Anyway that all aside - we need to hold the fire to these organizations by changing the laws so that religions do not have more of a voice than individual citizens. We need to change the federal law so that religious organizations may not work together to deny civil rights of any minority. Thats how we hold them accountable IMO. :)

[donco6]

20. Money = Power. Simple, really. n/t

[sui generis]

23. Why on earth don't we tax all churches?

It's so hocus pocus silly to give organizations "of faith" a break, merely because they're faith based.