Hey now, let’s not be lumping those together! Also, while I agree he practically exudes greed, I’m very glad to not see lasciviousness there.
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That doesn’t mean “Congress can’t make laws about religious buildings/organizations”. It means “Congress can’t designate one religion as the official state religion like the Church of England”.
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Source? That seems fantastically low. The Church as in the Catholic Church?
Well, the image is the Salt Lake (Mormon) Temple.
I suspect that if this 3% thing is true anywhere it might be Utah. Currently Utah’s state income tax is 5%, and the Mormon church is rich enough (and enough of its assets are in Utah), and the Utah population small enough, that I would be unsurprised if taxing it would pay for a cut to 3%.
Of course, a 2% tax cut for the residents of one small state isn’t the earth-shaking change that the person who made the meme seems to suggest.
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Honestly… I thought this ass-stick was dead. 
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I do not want to ever see Copeland’s “O-face”.
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Ah, the Mormons. Yes, if you’re talking one state then maybe. I know the Morons actually have more wealth accrued than the Catholic church in the US.
Fun fact: I live in the same city as one of their fancy temples. I thought it was supposed to be where Christ was prophesied to return, but I might be wrong about that.
Right. Exactly.
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*Or 30 - 50 Feral Hogs? Send in the Gadarene Swine.
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Hard core (well, convinced) Christian, but I came here to suggest exactly this. The guy looks (and acts) so evil and possessed that it counts as evidence against materialism (extra ironic, of course because Copeland is so … materialistic).
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Either way, it makes no difference.
Taxes…
Either way, he won’t pay 'em.
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There will be screams of “I’m a VICTIM!!!”.
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In fairness, the Gospel does clearly proclaim “If you desire your neighbor’s cloak, take it from him.”
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The entire basis of
Christiantiy is God
impregnating a
teenager without her
consent for the actual
purpose of killing his
own child
Or rather: God was effectively committing rape for the actual purpose of committing suicide.
[Jesus doctrinally is God; millions of people who disputed this have died in religious wars].
But my favorite is Abraham and Isaac:
God tells Abraham to murder son Isaac “because.”
And instead of Abraham saying “No way, God-- I will not kill my son! You were testing me and I passed, right?”
Abraham says “Whatever. You know best. One filicide coming right up!”
And God says “You did it! You were actually going to murder your own son! You passed!”
Because thats what you do when you are an all-loving diety: you fuck with people.
And that’s what you do when you are a proper believer: you kill your family at God’s behest.
(Cf: Jephthah, who killed his daughter so God would ensure a battlefield victory. At least Jephthah got something out of it; Abraham sold out Isaac cheap.)
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Keep in mind that he probably didn’t pay federal taxes on the money used to purchase the house. Us peons are only able to deduct the interest portion of mortgages from taxes, but housing (either in kind, or through a housing allowance) is not taxable for ministers or military service members.
God created the world and everything in it so this creep is stealing from God. And the IRS.
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It’s a long-standing Jewish interpretation that Abraham actually failed that test.
At that stage in the story, Abraham has form for arguing and bargaining with God in order to save lives (for instance, getting God to agree not to destroy Sodom if He can find 10 righteous people there). But when told to sacrifice his son, he just agrees.
After the Binding of Isaac, God never speaks directly to Abraham again.
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A sucker deal because omniscient God knows exactly how many righteous people there are, and sets the righteous qualifications.
“What if I can find three righteous people?”
“Um. No, has to be at least four.”
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Neither does Isaac, for some reason.
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He seems so very proud of himself, to have found Old Testament excuses to be a wealthy s.o.b., while completely forgetting the New Testament, servant of the people examples of Christ.
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That’s fascinating. So, in this situation, Judaism has taken the problematic text (which they cannot simply “cross out” and emend the text, because the religion is too mature). Instead, they change their interpretation of the text 180 degrees from that of their ancestors from 2500 years ago.
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Yeah, it really is paradoxical. They are admitting that the Yahweh of the Old Testament was either not all-knowing, or he was a bastard. “Well, OK… if you can find 10 righteous men where I could not, I’ll hold off… I mean, I looked… I didnt find any… But what would I know, right?” Really, for Abraham to make any petition like that assumes God is fallible and is impious on its face.
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