AlterNet: 1,000,000 Strong to Strip Mormon Church of Tax Exempt Status

[marmar]

1,000,000 Strong to Strip Mormon Church of Tax Exempt Status

Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet at 1:50 PM on February 9, 2009.

Facebook organizing leads to real-world action.



During the election, the Mormon Church pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the push to ban same-sex marriages in California -- a campaign that deprived people in a different state of a fundamental civil right.

LDS officials initially claimed they spent $2,078 on the Yes on 8 campaign (although direct donations by individual members exceed 20 million). But recent tax filings reveal that the Church spent nearly $190,000 to help pass Prop. 8, paying church members to phone bank and travel to CA to campaign for the measure.

While officials investigate the odd discrepancy between the Church's initial report and their tax filings, independent groups have formed to lobby for a review of the Church's tax exempt status.

"1,000,000 Strong to Strip the Mormon Church of its Tax Exempt Status" is a Facebook group founded to direct the outrage over the Church's role in the campaign into action.

"I am of the notion that religious institutions constantly overstep their bounds in regards to how much the written legal parameters allow them to attempt to influence politics," says John Jeb Brenden Whitlock, who founded the group. "The LDS Church was at the time the most obvious target."

While Whitlock believes that stripping the Church of its tax exempt status is an unrealistic goal, the group is nevertheless pushing for "better regulation of how they spend their finances." .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/126078/1%2C000%2C000_strong_to_strip_mormon_church_of_tax_exempt_status/

[G_j]

1. $190,000 !

they sure do need to lose their tax exempt status!

[wundermaus]

2. It's nothing more that a cult...

[stopbush]

5. As is all religion.

[Ian David]

3. We could always do it as a ballot initiative. n/t

[Starry Messenger]

9. I would totally get behind that. n/t

[snot]

4. I'd be happy to see ALL churches stripped of their exemptions.

To the extent they spend their money helping the needy, that would be a deductible expense, just like the expenses of any other corporation. Even ministers' and other employees' expenses would remain deductible. But why should I subsidize the rest, again?

[cascadiance]

6. The problem is that churches by law can't fund candidates or parties, but propositions?....

... That's another story. Some will argue that they have free speech rights that allow them to do so.

And when I was in California right before the election, we noted just before our Democratic Club meeting then that a church down the street had yes on prop 8 signs right on their grounds...

I think you probably can't create laws that prevent them from funding speech against gay marriage, but perhaps there might be a way to actually put another proposition on the ballot that would make it illegal for tax exempt institutions to specifically fund direct no or yes campaigns on a given propositions on the ballot, or risk losing their tax exempt status.

I think that would take away from their shady mis-representational funded campaigns for and against certain ballot initiatives. Like I said, they can probably chant about their morals indirectly and not directly refer to such ballot initiatives, but they'd be a lot harder pressed to put a bigger promotion effort to go one way or the other on these issues that would warp the public discourse on these.

Of course, that might also affect non-profits abilities to support issues too like green energy, etc. too, so we'd have to be careful about that.

[NAO]

7. I hope they lose their magic underwear b/c of this

[Quantess]

8. K & R