501 c3 Churches

[seanD]

You too!

[KingsGambit]

Let me be clear about one thing. If the government placed a condition on preaching that specifically prohibited the church from teaching on a specific biblical teaching (most likely that would probably be homosexuality), that would be too high a price to pay.

[Cow Poke]

Let me be clear about one thing. If the government placed a condition on preaching that specifically prohibited the church from teaching on a specific biblical teaching (most likely that would probably be homosexuality), that would be too high a price to pay.

Our Church has already discussed this, and would forfeit our tax exempt status. Assuming, of course, that SCOTUS didn't intervene.

[Jedidiah]

Amen to KG and CP. If I were a member of a church that altered Biblical teaching, on homosexuality or anything else, to keep tax exempt status I would move and give my tithe to a body that held to the Bible rather than PC.

[Jedidiah]

Probably a wrong place to put this but I urge support for the Fair Tax, and elimination of the IRS.

[Thoughtful Monk]

I first heard about the unregistered church movement maybe 20 years ago. I think my initial reaction was an interesting and in points a valid perspective on church-state relationships but that their concerns about the government controlling the church were over-stated. Now I'm wondering if they weren't prophetic and there is coming a point where you can be loyal to the government or the church but not both.

On the other hand, separation of church and state is a relatively new concept. In Jesus' time, the Jews would have been struggling with the same idea since until the Roman conquest, their state was a theocracy centered on God. In the modern era, the United States is the first country I know of to have a separation of church and state formally enacted. Everywhere else had the official state religion (at the time: England = Church of England; France = Roman Catholic; Sweden = Lutheran, etc) and other denominations were at best tolerated. No surprise that we today struggle with the same.

[KingsGambit]

I first heard about the unregistered church movement maybe 20 years ago. I think my initial reaction was an interesting and in points a valid perspective on church-state relationships but that their concerns about the government controlling the church were over-stated. Now I'm wondering if they weren't prophetic and there is coming a point where you can be loyal to the government or the church but not both.

On the other hand, separation of church and state is a relatively new concept. In Jesus' time, the Jews would have been struggling with the same idea since until the Roman conquest, their state was a theocracy centered on God. In the modern era, the United States is the first country I know of to have a separation of church and state formally enacted. Everywhere else had the official state religion (at the time: England = Church of England; France = Roman Catholic; Sweden = Lutheran, etc) and other denominations were at best tolerated. No surprise that we today struggle with the same.

I don't think separation of church and state in a predominantly Christian society is really all that bad of a thing. I recently read a book by Rodney Stark and he basically said that separation of church and state was the best thing that ever happened to the church, because in the Middle Ages, the church/government officials often had little to no interest in genuinely being religious, and there were religious leaders openly involved in affairs and taking bribes/buying offices (which is why the Catholic Church was in the state it was around the time of the Reformation), but once the Reformation and Counter-Reformation happened, both the Catholic Church started being run by people who took God seriously again and it's been the same way since.