Just a quick follow up to yesterday’s post regarding the billionaires, politicians, and their families who were recipients of the C-19 relief money that was intended to keep small businesses afloat:
The Evangelical church received $7.3 billion from that fund
That’s it, I just want to update you on my post’s inadvertent omission, but I’m not going to comment on it…except to say this: there is so much that is wrong with the way we do things in this country. That’s it, I’m done… but let me add this: Churches pay no taxes, so why are they getting taxpayer-funded relief? I mean, the first amendment to the US Constitution clearly states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The third word from the end of that quote☝️🏼is free. Free is synonymous with exempt. That doesn’t mean tax-exempt. It means exempt from persecution. So who decided churches shall be tax-exempt, and who decides which church, and why are they getting tax bailout money?
Okay, moving on…Let me first clarify that the “freedom” Jefferson referred to is that of choice. You can worship a televangelist or Tom CruiScientology or the sister-wives religion if you choose to, and I can worship my bunion and hammertoes if I choose to, but (this is bullshit,) my feet are subject to taxation. How can churches be tax-exempt but not bailout exempt? My bunions get no relief.
What this administration did when it chose to dole out our great grandchildren’s tax dollars to one denomination is akin to tithing on their behalf. Mike Pounce, his big daddy, the family’s pet turtle are tithing for taxpayers for generations to come because that’s how long it will take to make up for this GOP kleptocratic crap.
That’s all I wanted to say…but who voted evangelical? When did that become the national denomination? It wasn’t on my ballot. I might have chosen my bunions.
Let me blog-evangelize for a minute. The idea televangelists have been using to get rich on is that if you give your money to God, he she will bless you with more money because God wants people to be prosperous.
How is giving your money to someone like Joel Osteen, who is worth 50 million tax-exempt dollars the same as giving money to God? During Hurricane Harvey, that asshole locked his flock out of his Ostentatious Lakewood Church. Who can blame him; they were wet. WWJD? (What would Jesus do?) NWOD. (Not what Osteen did.)
America is the land of the free, free from religious persecution. Also covered by this proverbial blanket is freedom from organized religion, or you can live your life without religion altogether if that is your preference. Americans can have faith in a car salesman pastor, or my bunion, for which no basket will be passed.
Theology is a tax-exempt cash cow. The hypocrisy of this prosperous gospel, of Evangelical Protestants, siding with the GOP is grounds for losing their tax-exempt status. When a church endorses a political party they are no longer neutral. Make them pay taxes!
That’s all I wanted to say…Donald Trump does irony better than anyone, smiling for cameras as he holds up a Bible, after gassing his subjects. He has shined a light on the conflation of religion’s posturing for power, and the flimflam piety of the Evangelical Republican Party.
I will only say this, it’s an act for the benefit of God-fearing voters in the flyover states, the ones whose votes hold eight times more weight than that of a New Yorker, courtesy of the electoral college.
I will not expound…except to say that organized religion is not a ticket to heaven, it’s a money-making scheme that targets the same gun-wielding people whose electoral votes are counted many times over.
I know the rules. Etiquette dictates that the subjects of politics and religion should be avoided. I possess limitless self-control, which is why, as I said, I’m going hold my tongue…I’m just telling you that we bailed out the Evangelical Church with a forgivable $7.3 billion dollar “loan,” and churches don’t pay taxes. This administration is tithing for taxpayers.
mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2480CB
A lot from Lydia 
I was very concerned about this bill in the first place, because of exactly the type of nonsense that you describe above. I always felt that it was ill advised to do anything other than provide for hospitals and health care facilities and give individuals assistance until we knew more about the fallout.
The best way to help legitimate businesses is to allow consumers to keep spending. Money to individual households helps people and the businesses that serve them in one go. Loans were never a good idea. Especially with the lack of organization that benefitted people in the know. It was kind of like insider trading.
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I agree. I hate that they’re using the word loan when describing this. The key word is “forgivable” loan. These loans are not going to be paid back. This was a tailor made program. There is likely a list of criterion attorneys for the recipients of the money are making sure are met so they are forgiven the payback. This is what they do in broad daylight. Imagine what we don’t know.
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At this point I feel like nobody is bothering to hide.
I feel like the press has really gone over to the dark side. They are falling over themselves to cover stupid tweets with hours of analysis but that just gives the Difficult Toddler more press (all press is good press for him because it gives the illusion that he is doing something, and it feeds the ego).
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copied and pasted on my blog with credit/link to you, of coarse.
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Thank you!
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Yep. This is why the idea of Trump getting impeached and going away never really made me feel that great…because then we’re left with Mike “Blessed Be The Fruit” Pence, and we will see even more of this stuff.
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