Does tax exemption help or hurt the church?

[Rhys]

Does a church incorporating and gaining tax exempt status put it under bondage to worldly government and silence it on social and political issues for fear of losing its tax exemption? Does getting a deduction for charitable giving lead to giving for wrong motives, or to seeking to give where you get a deduction rather than seeking the Lord's will? If people didn't get a deduction, would giving decline?

Sadly, I have seen personally where people refused to give to the Lord's work when they couldn't get a tax deduction for it, and also that pastors and Christian leaders are afraid to speak out on issues for fear of the IRS.

A great many of the church's problems today are a direct result of the church "taking" and actively pursuing a legal status that makes it inferior to, and a subordinate of, the civil government. The two most significant ways this occurs is by incorporation (state jurisdiction) and the tax-exempt 501c3 status (federal jurisdiction).

http://hushmoney.org/free-church_solution.htm

It’s radical, and we can blog this, but would the Church be better off losing it’s State granted tax exemption so it can challenge the King’s of this age as the prophets of old did? Would losing an exemption have kept Ezekiel silent?

http://www.businessreform.com/article.php?articleID=11795

Sadly, however, ever since local churches started organizing as tax-exempt non-profit corporations in the mid-twentieth century, and since the incorporated 501c3 church is now the status quo, many folks have a hard time conceiving of the church operating as just a church. For some odd reason, just being a church isn’t good enough anymore for too many Christians.

http://hushmoney.org/free-church_solution.htm

There is an interesting blog on this at: http://businessreform.com/blog_detail.php?blog_id=3758

[nChrist]

Hello Rhys,

I have mixed emotions about this issue, mainly because of the mixture of places calling themselves churches (i.e. satan worshipers).

No, I don't think that the IRS should have anything to say about what is taught in a church or spoken from the pulpit. Further, I don't think that God should be taxed, but it's a confusing world that we live in.

I think there are many pros and cons in this issue, but I'll only mention a few. First, I think that many people do depend on their offerings to be tax deductible, and I fear that offerings would go way down if this deduction was removed. On the other side of the coin, I don't want the IRS telling the pastor what he can say from the pulpit. I think that most people would feel the same way, but the end result would be lower offerings. As an individual, I would rather lose the deduction and have total freedom of speech in the church.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Romans 10:8-10 NASB  But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

[Soldier4Christ]

To keep the tax deduction or to pay it will not stop the IRS from controlling what is said from the pulpit. Either way the government will be controlling what is put out as is the current trends attempt to do. Freedom of speech from the pulpit is rapidly declining.

[Shammu]

Rhys, my Church isn't a tax exempt, Church. We give what we can, I guess this is one of the reasons it's poor. Poor in monetary value, but rich in the Word, of Christ. Where as we pay taxes, we are not under the preview of the IRS.   They can't say anything about how we hold our services.

We have gone back to holding services in homes again. To me, that is a much more intimate setting. Fellowship, in the name of Christ means more, then a building (least to me.)

[sincereheart]

A church was burned down in China. A church that was over 70 years old- which is a long time there for a church. The folks who complained about them called from one of the "state sanctioned" churches.

How long till we end up there?

 

[Soldier4Christ]

. Fellowship, in the name of Christ means more, then a building (least to me.)

Amen!!

[Soldier4Christ]

A church was burned down in China. A church that was over 70 years old- which is a long time there for a church. The folks who complained about them called from one of the "state sanctioned" churches.

How long till we end up there?

 

It's coming soon sister. In fact it is already on it's way.