>>>>
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-10-22-irs-catholic-obama_N.htm>>>
>>>That is NOT news. Post a link when a church actually PAYS tax. That day, 24px font won't be too much.
>>
>>Do you consider the Church of Scientology a real church? (Many don't):
>>
>>
The church paid $12.5 million, while the IRS agreed to drop arguments that Scientology, which was founded by L. Ron Hubbard, was not a bona fide religion.
>>
>>
http://www.nysun.com/national/judges-press-irs-on-church-tax-break/70957/>
>I suppose it depends on your definition of a real church. The 'church' of Scientology is a mind and income control organisation dedicated to controlling and sucking money out of as many people as they can manage. So in that sense, yes, they are a real church.
-G-
I believe in complete freedom of religion (or abstention from it) and it does seem there isan inherent problem with the government deciding what a "real" religion is. Are the Scientologists, Mormons, or Hari Krishna's weirder than fundamentalist Christians, Moslems or jews - or just newer and lest culturally embedded.
(and 12.5 Million for the Church of Scientology is couch-cushion change )
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
