A late colleague of mine suggested that this is what made New Orleans so special: unlike the cities on the East Coast, it was not established by Puritans. (I’d counter that this might apply to any number of cities in the formerly Spanish-owned parts of the U.S., but back then, I’m not sure whether any of them were as big as New Orleans and/or not founded by clergymen.)
Trouble is Budapest has (and always had) a significant Jewish population apparently the biggest in Easter Europe so the suggestion is that maybe they shouldn’t really be there.
1 Like
John Tory tried to run on the platform of equalizing separate school funding for all religions.
It pretty much lost him the election.
1 Like
If you’re okay with the rules for charities, it would make more sense to just start enforcing them equally for churches.
3 Likes
Exactly. Churches should by default no longer get tax exemption unless they can prove that they’re doing charity work and fill out the proper forms, and be audited regularly. Just like other tax-exempt orgs.
5 Likes
You forgot one point that will need to be enforced: evangelism is not charity.
5 Likes
Obviously. I could talk a long time about exactly how manipulative and non-altuistic religious charity typically ends up being. How it’s almost always a quid-pro-quo of “listen to our message (which calls all of you needy people shitty and worthless), and in return we’ll give you something you need in order to survive.”
But I’ll leave the rest of my rant as an exercise for the user.
3 Likes
Just yesterday, I guest taught a class here in China. I was supposed to teach a bit about US culture/history/current events/etc. In passing, I mentioned the Puritans and that contrary to popular American myth they were quite fine with religious persecution, as long as they were the ones who got to persecute. Frankly, I expected the class to just shrug at this, this is likely not an American myth they’re particularly invested in. However, a Christian student took umbrage at this. (It seemed like mild umbrage, but the fact that she was willing to publicly speak out against a teacher (even if I was foreign) at all, hints at strong feelings.) Apparently, at least some Chinese Christians are taking the Puritans as inspiration. Having not expected any pushback on this aside, I hadn’t done any particular research on the Puritans, so all I could counter her with was the Salem witch trials. Of course, her own insistence on the Puritans’ efforts to rid the Church of England of all remaining Catholic practices probably undercut her own argument.
On a further side note, based on limited discussions, quite a few non-Christian Chinese think that Catholics are not Christian. Not out of some “no-true-Christian” thinking, they’re not Christian and don’t care. It just seems to be a perception here.
7 Likes
I’m pretty sure that city was founded by a coalition of pirates and prostitutes.
Good times.
6 Likes
You say you want churches to be treated the same as charities, but it sounds like you actually want them to be treated much more harshly.
How so? There are strict reporting rules for 501c3 organizations. A lot of churches don’t even file with the IRS at all. And further, there are a lot of churches in the US that do “pulpit freedom sunday” where they will tape the pastor delivering a politically charged sermon, instructing the congregation on how to vote and who to campaign for, then mail it into the IRS.
I wonder what would happen if Doctors Without Borders, or the FFRF did that? Would they just be left alone, and they’d get to keep their tax-exempt status? I should think not. Yet churches do it, and practically never are even audited.
They need to be brought back within the law and treated fairly. They don’t deserve to be granted tax-exempt status unless they can prove that they’re doing the same work as all the other tax-exempt orgs.
You know how churches are never audited unless they are in a criminal situation, while 501C3 organizations are audited occasionally even when nothing’s wrong? Yeah, the churches should at least be able to withstand that level of scrutiny, and keep records.
7 Likes
Yup, that is the only way to get religious equality. Treat religion equally to non-religion. And many people don’t realize we do this already, though only a little bit. Quid pro quo donations are not tax deductible - that is, if you “buy something” with your donation - regardless of whether the charity is religious or non-religious. So, you don’t get to deduct the tuition to Catholic school, not even for the religious instruction portion. (Scientology may be the exception that highlights the general rule.) We just need to extend this parity to other aspects of charitable organizations, such as the filing for approval with the IRS under the exact same standards, public reporting, etc.
5 Likes
Look, feeding and educating needy children is fine and all, but without the ignorance and superstition your charity is just not as valuable a contributor to society.
1 Like
I respect Tory for that in a way. I think it would be a mistake, but the right kind of mistake. It would eliminate the inequality and pave the way to eliminating the catholic school boards via a sneaky work-around. I honestly think people would do better with “eliminate the separate school system” than with fund everyone equally, since funding everyone equally basically made a certain segment of the population (a segment that Tory had to be counting on for votes) think they would be funding terrorist training camps.
But, fun fact, John Tory was Kim Campbell’s campaign manager. The man has a bit of disasterous careers as a politician. He seems to think that seeming like a reasonable person wins elections. He’s fortunate anyone-who-seems-even-vaguely-reasonable was exactly what Toronto voters wanted last time.
I agree. “No one gets separate schools” is a better solution than “everyone gets separate schools,” but either would be much more fair than “only Catholics get separate schools.”
Yes, if “seems vaguely reasonable” was a qualification for office, Mulcair’s campaign wouldn’t have been sunk by opposing a ban on niqab for citizenship ceremonies.
For sure. Tory was in the right place at the right time last election. After Ford, “seems vaguely reasonable” was all that 60% of Torontonians could hope for.
1 Like
Hehe, yeah, Ol’ John Tory, the Liberal’s Conservative. “Could be worse” politics at it’s median.
I too liked his solution to the separate school dilemma, but I think most people knew it would sink him, I did. Besides being fundamentally flawed (politically) for pointing out to his base that the “other” should be equal, it was way too much trying to please everyone than most people can stand.
A book by some insider on that campaign reports that Tory honestly thought the policy would be accepted because it was the right thing to do. He didn’t see how McGuinty could fight him on it. It’s weird how out of touch with reality Tory is. Oh well, children under 12 ride the TTC free = best mayor of Toronto ever.
There’s a sign when you go up the 400 that clearly disagrees with you. 
Seriously, though. I think Tory would have made a decent premier. It’s a shame that he was the leader of a party that I seldom vote for.
