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From: kurtzman@uscvax.UUCP (Stephen Kurtzman)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion
Subject: Re: "Secular Humanism" banned in the US Schools.
Message-ID: <1091@uscvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Sep-85 11:56:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: uscvax.1091
Posted: Fri Sep 20 11:56:55 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 10:26:25 EDT
References: <1072@ulysses.UUCP> <607@hou2g.UUCP> <5847@cbscc.UUCP> <673@utastro.UUCP> <5878@cbscc.UUCP> <717@utastro.UUCP>
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Xref: linus net.politics:10451 net.religion:7334

> > In article <673@utastro.UUCP> padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan) writes:
> > >
> > >I thought religions were already being helped financially - don't
> > >they get tax breaks?
> > 
> > This is really irrelevant to the issue at hand since public schools
> > don't pay taxes either.  Private schools have to charge tuition.
> > Parents paying this tuition must also pay taxes to support the public
> > schools.  (This is the argument for tuition tax credits.)
> > 
> > Paul Dubuc 	cbscc!pmd
> 
> I hate to disappoint you but it is relevant. I was responding to the remark:
> 
> >> OK.  Then we'll make church attendance cumpulsory, just as a
> >> state certified education is now.  You'll have to help support
> >> the church with your tax money too, just so we're all on an
> >> equal footing.  Is it a deal?
> >> -- 
> >> 
> >> Paul Dubuc 	cbscc!pmd
> 
> The implication here is that churches don't get help financially from the
> tax-payer. If they don't have to pay taxes, then they are being helped.
> 
> Padraig Houlahan

Look at this from the other side. If the donations to a church were taxed
the government could claim a right to look at any records of the church
to determine contributions. Such power can be (ab)used by the state to
harass unpopular sects. Something of this sort happened to a TV preacher in
LA. The FCC decided that it had a right to see all donation records to the
church to determine whether or not fraud had been committed by the preacher.
The preacher (Gene Scott) never let his records out for various religious
and constitutional reasons. However, the courts didn`t see it that way and
the FCC pulled the license for his TV station. The last that I heard the FCC
was going after a TV station the church owns in No. California and after a
couple of radio stations owned by the church. The problem here is that a
church does have a right to protect its records from government intrusion.
The FCC needs to see those records to determine whether a fraud has been
committed. The FCC claims it has a right to see the records since his TV
ministry is a television station business and the FCC has been given broad
power over its licensees. In this case, it appears that the FCC has overstepped
the bounds of its authority. But since it was upheld by the courts it 
can go about trying to silence that church (on TV that is). 


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