Christ Jesus, this is beyond rich. From today’s New York Times:
Six weeks after Senator Charles E. Grassley asked six well-known evangelistic ministries to provide information on how they spent donors’ money, only two have complied.
The lawyers for one ministry have asked for more time from Mr. Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, who sent letters to the organizations in early November. Three other ministries have not been in recent contact with the committee or have said they will not cooperate.
Hmmmm. Do you think they have something to hide? Maybe, but that’s not the point of this little exercise. This is (emphasis added):
Lawyers for Bishop Long said in a statement that a letter he sent to Mr. Grassley asserted that the senator’s request “clearly disregards the privacy protections of the church under law and appears to cross the line of constitutional guarantees for churches.”
At the outset, some churches, including those outside the inquiry, argued that Mr. Grassley’s inquiry violated the constitutional separation of church and state. But some legal and church scholars said that the government was within its rights to examine whether tax-exempt entities like churches are abiding by the law.
Wow. I mean really ... just wow.
These holy roller wingnuts must have balls as big as their heads to use a line like that. Let’s just savour it for a minute, shall we? “Mr. Grassley’s inquiry violated the constitutional separation of church and state”. The sheer hypocrisy of it is almost breathtaking. And if you called any of them on it, they’d be all “What? What? I don’t understand what you mean ... Are you accusing me of something? Why do you hate God?”
Maybe they have a point. Really, it’s none of the government’s business what they do with their money. I’m sure they spend it wisely.
After all, it’s not like any evangelical ministers have ever paid off a church secretary so she wouldn’t blab about a little love in the afternoon.
Or used their money to preach intolerance by accusing a Teletubby of advancing the hideous gay agenda.
Or tried to extort money from their followers because “God was gonna call him” if he didn’t raise $8 million by that March.
Or hire gay hookers and use crystal meth. I mean really.
Heh.
4 comments:
None of the things you listed would be the government's business. If that's what they're checking for, then the people they're asking for records from are perfectly within their rights to refuse.
The important question is, are they using the funds they raise for political purposes. If so, THEY are in breech of the separation of church and state, and should be paying taxes.
It would be funnier if we could believe that by invoking the constitutional separation of church and state, they were be deliberately ironic. I suspect however, that's not the case.
I just hope they don't start looking into dildo's and wetsuits. That'd REALLY violate the separation of church and state.
Collecting tax dollars from everybody and giving them only to Christians? Nah that doesn't violate anything, why do you ask?
How about when Pat Robertson was praying for someone to come along and off Hugo Chavez?
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