Now, there is a church on every corner in Nashville and in our country. They all operate virtually tax free. This is crazy. I don’t think they should be taxed as a full business but at least pay 25% of that a business would pay. The church is the first to say and I agree that this country was found on Godly principles. I think most of the financial mess we’re in is a result of 911. Whether that is the case or not, we have run out of places to generate revenue. Printing more money is not the answer for that only devalue the dollar even more.

Does the church not appreciate what our troops have done since 911. The majority of the mess we’re in is due to the war in Iraq. Most of the deficit before the economic collapse was due to the war. And if we had not had that high of a deficit when Wall Street went down; we’d had a smoother and quicker recovery. The war, whether you agree with it or not, was in response to 911. Some say a holy war; especially to those who pulled it off. Does the church not feel indebted to the military. Why wouldn’t the church agree to such a measure. Does the church enjoy being able to call the fireman if there is a fire. Does the church not enjoy being able to call the policeman if there is a problem? Well these things cost money. Not to mention the enormous amount of land the church owns. This is unfair to all land owners across.

The church should agree to a ten years taxation period with a guaranteed non-tax period of two years subsequent to that.

It’s time the churches put their money where their mouth is. Email your congressman to help get this idea moving. The revenue generated will more than pay our national debt and save social security.

Now some of you will say that making churches no longer non-profit entities would violate the constitutional mandate of separation of church and state. It would not. The separation of church and state has to do with the constitutional ban on the federal government legislating or making laws telling you who you can worship, when you can worship and how you can worship, etc. It has nothing to do with the classification of churches as non-profit organizations. And it certainly has nothing to do with them paying or not paying taxes. (See federalist papers along w/ Thomas Jefferson’s notes).

Just so you know I am a christian and have no problem w/ my church paying taxes. Of course the church will hate the idea.

Here is the link to find your congressman.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Please forward this to all your friends. It should be an interesting debate.