R i g h t a r d i a: Put a sales tax on churches to pay for health care

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Put a sales tax on churches to pay for health care

With few exceptions, all of the religious creeds in the US are sales organizations. They proselytize for new recruits and try to covert people from other faiths. Accordingly, they should pay a sales tax. A five per cent sales tax would be a good place to start.

It would nice to see religion as part of the solution for once. Most of the churches have opted out of supporting social programs years ago.

In less than one month after taking his oath, President Bush created a White House Office of Faith Based Action. this office was supposed to “encourage religious institutions to compete to run drug, poverty, and other social programs now administered by government agencies.

Many religious leaders expressed concern, fearing the office will lead to government interference with their ministries, favor politically-connected ministers, and would violate the separation of church and state by providing government funds for what amounts to proselytizing.

Mr. Bush started experiencing criticism from those who want to protect the “wall of separation.” His proposal was criticized by Pat Robertson because it allows “non-Western” religions such as Hare Krishna and newer religious movements like the Church of Scientology and Unification Church to get in line for money.

Surprise! Did they NEVER consider this possibility? This is not unlike what James Dunn has noted about prayer in schools—whose prayers? Was Bush's world-view so parochial that when the word “faith-based” he thought it only means evangelical Christians?

The source reference has a lot of interesting anecdotes on why Bush faith-based ideas on social programs died a quick death.