"Tax The Churches!" ... Or Not

Due to the horrors found among some leaders and teachers within the Catholic Church, most priests have probably suffered the odd stare or harsh jokes from those with who they come into contact with during their day. This is to be expected, of course, because sin ripples until the innocent are wet, too.

However, that doesn't make it right, moral, or just to the hardworking priest who tends to funerals, deathbeds, sickbeds, and pulpits, doing his very best to serve the Lord and who has never harmed anyone, particularly children. That is, after all, true of the vast majority of priests.

Just as the sexual abuse scandal both scolded and humiliated the Body Of Christ within the Catholic Church, all of the Christian faiths - and even non-Christians faiths, like Islam - have much to worry about when it comes to the interest that some people have regarding taxing churches, something that does not (thankfully) take place currently.

Usually, this idea gets presented after a church does something that shames the Church Body as a whole. Some would argue that Joel Olsteen did this when he was alleged to have denied help to those suffering after a hurricane, and while his church may have already seen unsafe flooding, the media attacked him anyhow. After this scandal, cries of "tax the church" were heard louder than Lemmy's loudest outing.

The argument usually goes something along the lines of:

"The church gets free land, the pastor only works one or two days a week, and they live like kings with no oversight."

None of that is true.

To begin with, pastors and such do not only work on the days that they are preaching or writing the sermon. Usually, to quote the lingo' of the day, their work "sucks." It is certainly fulfilling work and without their tireless work, society - religious in nature or not - would suffer terribly. Still, most of their days can be filled with deathbeds, sickbeds, funerals, and hospital visits. A wedding is a blessed relief but since most people get married in the summer and on major days (like Valentine's Day), guess where the pastor spends his or her summers and romantic holidays? Of course, his wife or family also gets to accept this.

That is the cold, hard fact.

Furthermore, the bigger the church, the more of that dire list they get to face... every day.

The other myth is that there is no oversight. How is it that everyone knows what famous TV pastor has a jet or a mansion? There are records of it. It is public knowledge. His or her flock is free not to donate as they see fit at any time. It is not hidden. There is no secret jet hiding in a church warehouse that no one knows about. 

Also, like anyone else, taxes are paid on the things purchased by a church. It is only the land which the church is on (usually) and what they get via certain income streams that are not taxed and most churches do not in any way, shape, matter, or form own even CLOSE to enough land to make a sizeable difference if they were taxed on the property.

The reason why most pastors don't get busted with planes and sports cars is that they can't afford either. Everyone points to the megachurch as if that is common but that is like pointing to Metallica and assuming that everyone in a band makes that kind of money with that kind of draw. More like the local band at Buzzbin than Metallica, most pastors are happy to make a decent living, if they are lucky.

The last and most harmful myth is that, even if the land is small, taxing a church for every little thing just like another business would generate some money for everyone. While this may be true, the supposed gain turns negative quite rapidly upon study.

To understand how this is so, in Canton, Ohio, is a church called The Trinity Gospel Temple. From this building, a number of respected Christian teachers and pastors work, with Cathedral Of Life being located there after they suffered a fire, along with the tireless work of master musician and pastor, Michael Kelley.  

From this family of God, with some help from the Stark County Fairgrounds and from food supplied by local chicken and meat producers in the area, over 250,000 TONS(!) of food was either given or sold for $1.00 a pound to anyone, regardless of their faith, who came to the church. This was above and beyond the daily help that they give via food, utility payments, and so forth. 

Furthermore, this isn't the only food drive that they had, this was only one event that was done during the worst of the COVID-19 lockdown travesty. 

From here, an astute mind can easily deduct what taxing such a church and outreach would do. Each dollar taken away from this kind of work and given to Uncle Sam - and the logistics and planning can take eons -  each dollar is a dollar that a person in need does not get. Each moment of time spent dealing with mounds of paperwork is one moment not spent helping those in need. Plus, now the church would have to hire a tax expert. 

Trinity Gospel Temple is only one church that did something like this. There were many, from all denominations and beliefs.  All of them would be hampered or prevented (due to costs) from doing such work if taxes attacked them. As for the "big money" that the pastor gets, Cathedral Of Life's Pastor Dana Gammill takes a whopping $0.00 as payment from his church. Payment for him comes from his ownership of The Inn Of Belden Village - a job that he pays taxes on. 

If a church can not afford the property taxes (should they be taxed), then where is the church going to house 250,000 tons of chicken when needed? Should they buy or rent a warehouse? If so, there is even more money not going to the poor. 

If the church can not afford the taxes on other lands, then they won't send kids to youth camp. Those kids will then be free to spend time on the very streets where society has complained that kids are when the churches "should be stepping in and doing something," as so many people say. 

Lastly, perhaps it is best to remind everyone about the riches that the average pastor really earns: about $35,000 to $45,000 a year, according to Zip Recruiter, depending upon their state. That is the cold, hard truth. For working almost nonstop with funerals, trips to the hospital at 3 a.m. whilst others slumber, conducting weddings on every sunny weekend when others are fishing, for missing a myriad of holidays to plan sermons.. all of it - $45K... tops. 

Oh, and the taxes on $45,000 in Ohio would be only poultry $8,000. That, sadly, is not going to cure society's woes even if it is fleeced.