Catholic Voters Guide And Tax Exempt Status !!!

A caller on Randi Rhodes today, told of his 5 year old kid coming home from school with papers given to the class, with 'explanation', by teacher.

This is it here:

THE FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLE ISSUES


These five issues are called non-negotiable because they concern actions that are always morally wrong and must never be promoted by the law. It is a serious sin to endorse or promote any of these actions, and no candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any of the five non-negotiables.

1. Abortion

The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it" (EV 73). Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide.

The child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child's, who should not suffer death for others' sins.

2. Euthanasia

Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia also is a form of homicide. No one has a right to take his own life (suicide), and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.

In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).

3. Fetal Stem Cell Research

Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (CRF 4b).

Recent scientific advances show that any medical cure that might arise from experimentation on fetal stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there no longer is a medical argument in favor of using fetal stem cells.

4. Human Cloning

"Attempts . . . for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through 'twin fission,' cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (RHL I:6).

Human cloning also ends up being a form of homicide because the "rejected" or "unsuccessful" clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.

5. Homosexual "Marriage"

True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other form of "marriage" undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.

"When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral" (UHP 10).

Link: http://www.catholic.com/library/voters_guide.asp

Now if religious folks want to form their own PACs, that's fine. Give it your best shot. But when they start printing up guides, and admonishing CHILDREN, let alone parishioners, on how to vote, and who to vote for, they no longer deserve ANY type of tax break for religious reasons.

I know legislatively we are in the minority, but I would like to see some prominent Senator or Congress Person start threatening to bring such a move to a vote.

If religions want to get directly involved, and influence the political process, they should have to pay the piper.

:mad::nuke::grr:

I agree that these actions either have cross the line or are pretty close to the line and could be grounds for the Catholic church to lose its tax exempt status.

's 501c3 status

I'll do it.

Inspector General.

The site is actually referencing complaiints about IRS employees, but it also states that the IRS is charged with enforcing tax laws. There is an on-line form to file your complaint.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/egov/aa052500a.htm

It seems to me that this threat to the church has occurred in the past and always went away.

I don't blame you for trying, but with the religious slant of this admin., I doubt it will go anywhere.

I'm somewhat surprised. The Catholic church has backed away from the notion of "temporal power". That is, they no longer seek to influence on dominate governments (sovereigns) they are merely out to do the work of Christ. Saving souls and helping the poor.

This is a VERY bad u-turn for the Catholic church. They couldn't have picked a WORSE time. They have an all-time low amount of moral authority. This is an organization that routinely and systematically shuffled child molesters around to different parishes to cover it up.

The Catholic church had better watch out. The leity is in an uproar and may decide to take plate out of the deacons hands and place them INTO the hands of oversight boards.

The plain truth is that a majority of Catholics are NOT against abortion, divorce, birth control OR stem-cell research. When they're out to "save souls" they're fine. When they start trying to re-assert dominance over their flock, they're going to get into BIG TROUBLE!!!!!

There is an American Catholic community that is analogous to the Jewish community. Even if you don't practice, you're still kinda Catholic (like myself). Deep down, ALL Catholics are Cafeteria Catholics. They stick around because that's where their roots are.

If the church pushes this family too far, they may find that the leity will rebel and we could see another schism between American Catholicism and the Vatican.

Most people are going to take this kind of thing for what it's worth - agree if they agree, disagree if they disagree. I don't think it's going to change anybody's mind. As far as the children themselves are concerned, they are as likely as not to react contrarily to admonishments and moral browbeating when they get old enough for it to matter. Remember, the preacher's kid tends to be the wildest in town.

The very reason any religion gets a tax exemption in the first place, is because they agree to stay the hell out of politics.

The fact that this move would never come to a vote in THIS Congress, is testament to their past successes!

:argh:

I don't think tax-exempt status takes away any church's First Amendment rights to express and publish an opinion. Now if a church turned out to be almost entirely a political organ and only nominally concerned with religion, that might be different, but I don't think you'd have any hope of making that argument about the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Bishops also came out against the war in Iraq. Should that cost them their tax-exempt status?

sorry for the fractured syntax.

Churches and other charitable organizations are exempted from federal income taxes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

One of the restrictions placed on them is that in order to maintain their tax exempt status, they cannot use their funds to support or oppose political candidates and/or parties.

This avoids the potential for wealthy individuals to give huge amounts of money as tax-free charitable donations to what would be essentially political organizations.

As long as the "voter education" pamphlet put out by the RC Church does not advocate voting for or against a particular candidate or party, they are PROBABLY in the clear. And it is PROBABLY all right for an individual priest, bishop, archbishop, or even cardinal to speak his mind (no his/her there!) on an issue or a candidate.

Non-profits ARE allowed to speak out on issues, so long as they don't openly support or oppose individual candidates.

Tansy Gold, not an expert and therefore probably -- PROBABLY -- dangerous

just as they did all those years ago in germany

shame on them, shame on all the religions creating such cults as they prfess to murder moore and iraqi's in general and all muslims and ...........

i understand they are going thru the contributions for kerry to find parishoners who contributed to not give those people communion. do you think the people in these religions will have the balls to do what is right this time, or are they the sheep

for distributing voter scorecards in churches the day before anb election and that necessitated re-vamping the structure of his church.

I am amused that people actually think their church is in control of the government and can be in control and should be in control

What is the reason actually that any church is tax exempt to start with?

It seems to me to be an unethical admonition.

The captive audience, in fear of their afterlife if they disobey the god, are being appealed to vote in a certain way--or else!

As long as the Church does not endorse a party or candidate, I believe they are free to deal with issues.

or candidate. Plenty of non-profits have "voting guides" without endorsing particular candidates. However, I do favor repealing the tax-exempt status of religious organizations-- they are by their nature political, and largely conservative. These stains on our society don't deserve a free ride.

When you "suggest" people don't vote for Kerry, when you zoom in on Democrats like McGreevey, etc. And isn't it interesting how nobody's picking on pro-choice Republicans such as Pataki, Giuliani, Schwartzeneger, etc and nobody's picking on pro-Iraq war people? Remember, the Pope called this war evil, and said that Bush went into it without God's approval (contrary to what Georgie might have said).

It pisses me off so bad. I thought I had finaly found a nice non-political parish. :(

I posted about this last week. The pope has spoken out about the war in Iraq. The pope has taken a stance against the death penalty. Somehow both of those topics missed the issues candidates must be against to earn the Catholic vote. This is clearly geared to get Catholics to vote for bush, sort of as God's candidate, and to help give him a republican administration to work with for his agenda. They need to get out of politics or lose the tax exempt status.

The war in Iraq and the death penalty are not theological matters, they were individual members of the clergy and the Pope's opinion.

While that "list" includes things that are Church doctrine.

I believe when the Pope speaks, Catholics are supposed to listen, period. He is presented as the voice of God. Everything the Pope says is presented as a theological matter. These Bishops or whoever simply have a political agenda geared towards keeping Republicans in power. They are NOT picking on pro-choice Republicans.

As long as the statement is not ex cathedra, it's just some guy's opinion, even if it's the Pope's. It doesn't come from God. Can you revoke tax exempt status based on the opinion of a church leader? Hard to say. It would be a tough fight.

In the grand scheme of things, does it matter? The Catholic Church is going to die off in American within a hundred years I think.

Boy, I'd like to know the rationale for THAT one! After all, wasn't Jesus conceived through a process that could be fairly called parthenogenesis? That is, if you're going to believe what the gospel accounts in Matthew and Luke say.

Also, in parthenogenesis, since there is no male contribution of genetic material, the offspring must be female. I realize that "with God, all things are possible," but God doesn't routinely violate the laws of time and space that were instituted from the beginning . . .

:kick:

the DEATH PENALTY off of their list ?!?!?!?

Jesus...

:nuke:

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26 U.S.C. 501(c)(3)Corporations, and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, or to foster national or international amateur sports competition (but only if no part of its activities involve the provision of athletic facilities or equipment), or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation (except as otherwise provided in subsection (h)), and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.

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By the wording of the above section of the US Code, as long as a church or other charitable organization does not participate in a campaign for or against a specific candidate for office, they are alright...

...but, wait a minute...

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(snip)
These organizations cannot endorse any candidates, make donations to their campaigns, engage in fund raising, distribute statements, or become involved in any other activities that may be beneficial or detrimental to any candidate. Even activities that encourage people to vote for or against a particular candidate on the basis of nonpartisan criteria violate the political campaign prohibition of section 501(c)(3).
(snip)
Charities May Not Engage in Political Campaign Activities, IR-2004-59, April 28, 2004

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(snip)
Political Campaign Activity

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violation of this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise tax.
Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited depending on the facts and circumstances. For example, certain voter education activities (including the presentation of public forums and the publication of voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan manner do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity.

In addition, other activities intended to encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, would not constitute prohibited political campaign activity if conducted in a non-partisan manner. On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that: (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention.
(snip)

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Political and Lobbying Activities

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Speaking as a Candidate:
When a candidate is invited to speak at an organization event as a political candidate, the organization must take steps to ensure that:

It provides an equal opportunity to the political candidates seeking the same office,

It does not indicate any support of or opposition to the candidate (This should be stated explicitly when the candidate is introduced and in communications concerning the candidate’s attendance.), and

No political fundraising occurs.

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From the document cited above. I bring this up because I know that in several locales, there is no way that a pro-choice candidate would be allowed to speak to a Catholic group, at a Catholic college, etc. OTOH, there is no way that a 'pub would be allowed to speak at certain other churches' events (it works both ways). If you read Publication 1828, Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations, the guidance is really squishy and would be easy to get around.

Here's my problem with this whole line of thinking...the statements made so far are probably within the law, but are coming a little close to the edge. This type of thing goes on time and time again on both sides...with all types of nonprofits, not just churches. If there is an attempt to pressure the IRS to clamp down on one, it could result in backlash attempts to clamp down on all. That could be really harmful to the political process -- after all, banding together in interest groups -- often for justifiable nonprofit reasons -- is a natural part of our political process.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth...

From: Catholic Parents OnLine

TEN GOOD REASONS TO OPPOSE PUBLIC SCHOOL SEX EDUCATION

<snip>

6.Sexuality involves more than plumbing and birth control pills. The school sends the wrong message to students when their sex ed courses are mere "how to do it and how not to get caught" lessons. The best lesson in sex parents can provide their children is the love and respect they show for each other.

7.When proponents of public school sex ed say kids need to know more, what they really mean is they want to teach our kids to use condoms, the pill, and the IUD, and if they fail, where to get an abortion. These people just don't want any more babies. They never talk about reducing fornication or meeting the spiritual needs of our children. They focus on bodies when the real concern is souls.

8.Children don't need sex ed, they need chastity ed. Kids need to learn how to say no and why saying no is in their best interest - physically, emotionally, spiritually. The biology of sex takes ten minutes to teach, so what are the teachers talking about in a five or ten-week course?

<snip>

Link: http://www.catholicparents.org/oxcart/opposesexed.html

They need Chastity Ed I tell you!!!

Yeah... That works.

Sigh...

no official connection with the church. There is no real bio attached to the owner of the site. Don't you think he'd at least publish his CCD class or something?

John Paul and the hierarchy don't go with the Just War stuff posted on the site.

Just a Right Winger who grabbed the web site.

Start looking at the web site owners and check out their involvement with the church.

(and hypocritical) organizations they should pay taxes. Was this handed out in a public school? Its funny they could care less about anything that hurts the extreme rightwing like the death penalty and illegal wars which kill tens of thousands. This is complete bullshit!

In fundie churches every fall. So the next time the freepers gripe about how democratic politicians go to churches on the campaign circuit, we can point out that little fact.