Dear friend Hayley,
Loved your recent letter. It points out the faults with men's methods of providing protection for the man conceived church organizations. You made some interesting points.
When churches began in America they were influenced by their experience in the Churches of the "old" world.
In the area of public education the church provided schools for the general population and they were funded by the church member contributions. At one point the church organizations asked the general public, non members, for financial support for their education responsibilities and it was granted. However, in a short time there were complaints that the schools would teach a biased view of religious beliefs and that there should therefore be a separation of authority and collection of funds. This then led to a "public" school system divorced from the religious school system at least in the elementary education area. Advanced education as in University continued to be supported by the various religious organizations for some time until open secular lifestyles became acceptable. (there is quite a lot of published history on this facet of American schools)
More to your point, the operation of any church should be entirely funded by the membership with NO contribution from the general or secular, non member population through conscripted taxes. God does not need to extract taxes to support the teaching of HIS word. The new covenant is spiritual and should be spiritually understood, not by compulsion.
Ray Smith has said that we should not try to mix the old covenant of laws with the new and better covenant of spiritual understanding. I think that the same idea should be applied here.
If our way of living pleases God it will prosper. We should not even think about begging for funds from the unbelieving public and of applying the coercion of our "vote" to compel their contribution to our teaching and sharing of the truth of God.
So to address your first question, should church organization be tax exempt? NO!
Neither should they be tax burdened above what other users of the public provisions are burdened.
A large and useful church building resting upon five acres of parking lot and worth perhaps $500,000. is blessed with the services provided to every other building on that street. They of course already do pay for heat, air conditioning, lights, power for the organ, water supply and trash removal. Therefore why should they not pay their fair share of the expense of operating a City? They receive fire and police protection, street maintenance and snow removal to allow attendance during the winter. Their property is protected by local building codes that limit encroachment upon their lawful use of the property, which by the way stands vacant and unprotected during the week. So no, church facilities of the same character as facilities of other private organizations should not be exempt from reasonable expenses of lawful operation.
A side benefit of this manner of operation is the lack of the need of gaining approval from the non member local authorities for sermon topics on politics or other social concerns.
Just remember that any privilege that is granted by the public domain can later be withdrawn by that same granting authority. Best then to leave them entirely out of the situation and to learn to live within our means according to how God has blessed us.
On charity, we have a mandate from God in His word. That is a personal relationship and not the concern of others who may wish to support their favorite work.
Bob
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Topic: Its only money (Read 6248 times)