IRS Tyranny of the Church

By Mike Troxel / 2 October 2012 / 5 comments

The power to tax is the power to destroy. So said John Marshall, fourth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Folks like to bring up the non-existent “separation of church and state”, but the truth is, our current situation is exactly what the founders sought to avoid. For those unaware of this important little detail, nowhere in the Constitution will you ever find the phrase “separation of church and state.” What you will find is the phrase “nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof’” tucked neatly into the First Amendment. The significance of that is the difference in life and death to the Republic.

The ability of the IRS (via income taxes – which need to be abolished for numerous reasons) to control what religious institutions say is tantamount to state control of religion. The problem is the method of taxation – income. Abolish the IRS, go to a consumption based tax scheme and voila, non-profit status doesn’t matter.

Folks aren’t taxed on giving money away, or saving, or anything that doesn’t involve buying things with the money they’ve earned. What does this mean for churches and religious institutions? Simple, the term “non-profit” is a thing of the past and the fear of losing that designation no longer cripples them behind the pulpit, nor hangs like a club over their free exercise of their religion as they see fit. The ability of the IRS to tax donors for the money they donate is the choke chain on the church, the short hairs of the special interest groups – it is the power to destroy the free association of those individuals that make up that group.

This is perhaps the most pressing reason why the IRS must be abolished and a consumption tax instated as the means through which revenue is raised. The most pressing reason is not that income taxes are legislated theft of what one produces with one’s life (although they are), it is that income taxes are the silencer of free speech and the free exercise of religion. Income taxes are the state inserting itself into the very thing the first settlers to this continent risked life, limb and hardship to gain: the free exercise of religion. Churches are not free to say what they want, on the topics they want, in the way that the religious dictates of their spirit demand. Nay, the IRS hangs like a guillotine over their heads, threatening to cut them off from their life blood – and so, in the face of such certain destruction, they are cowed into silence by the very government intrusion they are supposed to be protected from.

Abolish the IRS. End the intrusion of the state into religious institutions and all other charities. And from the pulpit to the soap box, when folks are once again able to speak their minds free from the fear of reprisal from the tax man, let freedom ring!

Image: War in The Apotheosis of Washington; courtesy of Architect of the Capitol; public domain

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Mike Troxel is a right-wing, rabble rousing, Constitution loving, Tea Party starting trouble maker. He threw his locality's first ever Tea Party event, helped start and served as his local Tea Party's Vice-President. He is currently the Communications Chair for the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation and was accidentally elected to public office, by write-in, on election day. His interests include kayaking, rock climbing, chess, assassinating large woodland creatures with his bow, and over a decade of mixed martial arts. He holds an undergraduate degree in Print Journalism and a graduate degree in Business Administration.

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Victoria

Abolish the IRS. End the intrusion of the state into religious
institutions and all other charities. And from the pulpit to the soap
box, when folks are once again able to speak their minds free from the
fear of reprisal from the tax man, let freedom ring!
- Amen!
http://grbudwest.com/ GRBW

You said, “… go to a consumption based tax scheme and voila, non-profit status doesn’t matter.” Unfortunately, that would not likely answer the concern. The states usually grant sales and property tax exemptions to churches and other religious institutions and they haven’t had to monitor speech because of the rules surrounding Federal income taxes. However, if the Feds resorted to taxation associated with consumption, I’d bet my bottom dollar that they and some of the states would subsequently tie consumption and property taxes to speech.
http://www.missiontoisrael.org/ Ted R. Weiland

Mike Troxel: “…nowhere in the Constitution will you ever find the phrase “separation of church and state.”

Ted Weiland: “Christian Constitutionalists often point out that the phrase ‘separation of church and state’ is found in the Constitution of the USSR, not the Constitution of the United States. This is true. Nevertheless, the mandate for separation of church
and state is inherent in Article 6 on two levels: 1) The Constitution is declared to be the supreme law of the land, which makes any law (secular or Biblical) contrary to this ‘supreme law’ null and void and non-executable by the Constitutional Republic, 2) Religious qualifications for government officials are denied, which prohibits Biblical qualifications….

“We can debate the intent of the framers, but we cannot debate the effect: Christendom became merely Christianity – salt that lost its savor and good for nothing but to be trampled under the foot of non-Christians. American Christians have been under the boot of non-Christians and antichrists ever since 1788. We will continue to be the trampled until finally we throw off the current secular government and erect a government based exclusively upon Yahweh’s law.”

Excerpted from “Article 6: The Supreme Law of the Land?” at http://www.missiontoisrael.org/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt9.php.
http://www.survivingurbancrisis.com/ Silas Longshot

If the tax man won’t silence the likes of “reverend” J Wright, with his plain anti-American hate speech, then they better stay out of this highly volitile zone of messin’ with the church, no matter what the flavor of belief it may be. 0bama’s IRS is already ‘threatening’ some churches, telling them what they can say about king zero if they dare say anything at all. My church will be registering new voters until the last minute.
Ethan David Ellingson

10% flat tax on profit across the board. Abolish the Fed. Abolish the IRS. Gold or silver standard for currency (or certificates redeemable in gold or silver). This should be plenty enough to pay for any and all biblical government.

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