House Wants Clergy Housing Bill (The Hot War Against Religion)

Washington Post ^ | Tuesday, April 16, 2002; 4:33 PM | Curt Anderson

[MarkWar]

WASHINGTON

[MarkWar]

In another thread, I observed:

But, as we try to figure out what's going on in the world, think of this bit of strangeness:

1) The Western Establishment is at war with "radical" Islam for fomenting terrorism...

2) The Western Establishment is at war with the Catholic Church for tacitly accepting pedophilia...

3) The Western Establishment is at war with Israel for oppressing those poor Arabs...

The Western Establishment has found reasons for being at war with the world's three biggest religions.

Imagine the context wasn't world events, but the business world. Imagine first ABC found itself under financial attack. Then CBS found itself under financial attack. Then NBC found itself under financial attack. Would anyone assume it was "random events" hitting three similar targets at once? Wouldn't everyone be looking for some power bloc which would stand to benefit from the battle?

Hasn't the destruction of religion been an agenda item for one or two (in)famous global movements?!

Mark W.

[MarkWar]

>ping

Have you guys noticed that each major religion is being heavily attacked?!

Mark W.

[Zack Nguyen]

Just to think outisde of the box for a moment - would the clergy exemption, like the church corporate tax exemption, simply be a potential method of controlling Christians, keeping them from saying certain politically incorrect things?

[Lent]

Have you guys noticed that each major religion is being heavily attacked?!

The federal tax is fundamentally an indication of state control and interest. Given how the Supreme Court has interpreted the separation of church and state issue, this would be an unwarranted further undermining of religious freedom.

[reg45]

Under the concept of separation of church and state, it can be argued that clergy housing is church property and therefore exempt from taxation by the state as is other church property.