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Church transforms vacant land into massive urban garden, donates 65K pounds of food to people in need
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this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025
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This is a post about churches.
I know. They are also functioning as a food bank. They are a non-profit acting in a charitable manner.
Do ypu think they should engage in less charity so they can pay taxes?
Yes, they should not pay takes for money they can justify they used for charity.
Building mega-churches, having expensive cars and jets is not charity.
That’s also extremely uncommon in almost all churches/denominations. The overwhelming majority of churches in the USA are mainstream denominations.
What exactly do you mean by mainstream? Evangelicals are the largest branch of Christianity in America. Hell white evangelicals alone are 13 percent of all Americans which is tied for the largest group of all.
https://www.prri.org/research/2020-census-of-american-religion/
Evangelical churches are not a single denomination but rather are a collection of unaffiliated churches.
The reality is the mega church that owns private jets is extremely uncommon.
I guess we'll just pretend the Vatican doesn't exist
The Vatican isn’t a mega church. Almost no one in Roman Catholicism is using a private jet.
Fine, here then: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_religious_organizations
I don’t know why you would think tha assessment has any credibility. You aren’t going to know what they have and frankly that isn’t relevant to taxation as we don’t tax wealth.
Would be nice if we had some kind of visibility into that, huh?
We don't, but civilized countries do.
I dunno about other churches but I'm pretty sure the one I grew up in gave away donated food. Paying taxes wouldn't impact that at all.
They do other charitable work that isn’t handing out donated food. There is of course expenses associated with storing and giving out that food as well.
You'll be furious to know that the workers are almost entirely volunteers as well. The cost to the church directly is negligible. And I'm still sure whatever other charitable work they do would not be significantly impacted by paying taxes. If anything, the money generated could do infinitely more good in expanding welfare programs. Charity is a band aid, not a solution.
My mom ran one for over a decade. You might be surprised to find out your assertions are not correct in my experience as the people running food banks are in fact paid.
The US social net was built around religious charity and it is sophomoric to presume the state would utilize increased tax revenue to replace what was lost.
We wouldn't need that much charity if they paid their fucking taxes
That’s simply not true. There isn’t enough money being made by religious organizations for that to be the case, and the tax exempt status of religious organizations is not connected to how poorly the working classes are faring.
I'm pretty sure that Jesus guy that christianity is so famous for was doing it all for free.
Sure, not enough money at all /s
If they operated full time as a food bank and didn't proselytize to the people they are helping, then they shouldn't pay taxes. If they preach and try to convert people to their religion during their service, then I'm going to bet they try to do that to the people they feed. Preying upon people in their weakest moments is not a good thing to do, but it's all I've ever seen Christians do
Edit: "Marianists emphasized the power of small communities to “renew Christianity” following the French Revolution." If this is their emphasis, then they should definitely be paying taxes.
ok so the issue is your disdain for religion. You would be fine with a different food bank not paying taxes but only because they share your lack of faith.
Yes. I'm not sure why you seem confused. The premise is churches should pay taxes. I'm not sure what you don't understand about that. They should pay taxes. They are influencing people's opinions on our politics and policies. They should pay taxes. They are influencing people in their weakest moments. They should pay taxes. Do you understand that I believe any religious institution should pay taxes? I hope you aren't confused still.
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Churches should pay taxes that's all. Don't complicate it. Why would paying taxes force them to engage in less charity? Are you saying they're incapable of doing both?
The whole basis of the no taxing thing was because of the charity. I'm fine with small churches who do a lot of good for their community being exempt, the problem are the mega churches who make mountains of money and do nothing good with it.
I'm not. They can register as a tax-exempt charity and do the paperwork like all the other tax-exempt charities.
Well if a church is doing so much charity that it offsets their profits then it won't be a problem.
If they are paying taxes they have less money to engage in charitable works. Is this not immediately apparent?
There are plenty of tax-exempt charities. And they file paperwork and meet several conditions. Churches don't.
If churches want to be tax-exempt, they should meet the same criteria as the other charities.
Paying taxes immediately benefits everyone in the community. Helps pay for schools, roads, police and fire, etc. Do you not know how taxes work? There's also the added benefit of not being proselytized at.
These taxes can be used to support food banks. So the church would receive subsidies.
Tax and transfers. Income inequality is 0,26 in my country and 0,41 in yours. Even china is down to 0,35.
Charity doesn't seem to work. Taxes do work.
I don't need to feel good about doing something nice for someone else. I just pay taxes and the person doing something nice gets paid to do it.
They can be used for that purpose but they aren’t. This church is doing this right now.
Charity isn’t meant to tackle income inequality. It’s assistance for anyone who needs it when they need it (in theory).
Probably my culture, but I have no faith in charities. You know why? Because I haven't given a single euro to charity in my entire fucking life.
"The effectiveness of charities in the USA and tax and transfer systems in the EU in combating poverty can be evaluated through different lenses:
Charities in the USA:
Tax and Transfer Systems in the EU:
Comparison of Effectiveness:
Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses, and their effectiveness can depend on various factors, including economic conditions, political climate, and social norms."
Then they can file like every other nonprotand prove it through their finances, instead of the idiotic rubber stamp they get - including those megachurch abominations that drive lambos onto the stage of their sermons and own multiple private jets.
Nonprofits are not paying taxes.
But they do have to prove they are nonprofit, unlike churches. At least understand the thing you have an issue with