Dear Armchair Economists, dear Cybernethicians,
I know that churches have substantial tax exemptions in the US
and various other countries.
In the name of freedom of thought,
couldn't there be a Church of Tax Evasion?
A Church that anyone could join, and that would spread a God-send miracle
of prosperity to its members by the proposing the following way
of praying God:
* Adult members would selflessly donate part or totality of their wealth
and income to the Church.
* The Church, in exchange, would name each member Minister of the Church,
and confide him by a solemn act of eternal validity of the totality of
the riches that he contributed to the Church.
* With the riches thus entrusted to him by the Church, every minister may do,
in the name of the Church, whatever God inspires him to do with, as the
holy Minister of the Church that he is. This includes giving it back
to the miserably poor member of the Church that he has become by donating
so much riches to the Church.
* Whenever a member officially expresses the sinful wish to leave the Church,
the Church excommunicates him as a member and minister, and together
with him, repudiates all these unholy things of which he is in charge
in the name of Church, which, by another solemn act, are given back to him,
so he may well go to Hell with it.
* In the meantime, the member does not have to pay taxes on the riches
of which he is no more the legal owner, but only the God-choosen trustee,
as known to the Church.
* Actually, if he donated everything he had to the Church, the member
may become so poor as to receive relief from the Government. Of course,
the Church considers it a sin to accept such relief; but it leaves to God
Almighty the exclusive privilege to pardon or chastise the sinner.
* Indeed, no Minister is acknowledged any religious authority on any
other Minister, member, on non-member (this doesn't affect parental
authority, that may apply independently).
* The Church has no religious hierarchy whatsoever, no centrally appointed
Pope or Holy Scriptures, or whatever. Members are to follow the persons
and scriptures that they consider the wisest and holiest, according to
their own personal judgement.
* Reciprocally, no member or non-member may question anything that
any Minister of the Church does with the faculties and riches entrusted
to him by God and the Church. A Minister may adore God in anyway he deems
fit, even to the point of naming God by different names (if at all),
and of associating the _word_ "God" to unholy things (for instance,
french ministers will, like all french speakers, pronounce the word "God"
to designate a dildo).
* 100% voluntary Church charities would do anything they can to
relieve members and non-members from need and poverty, by means of blessing
voluntary mutual donations of services, goods and money with the holy
tax-exempting seal of the Church.
* Whatever taxes the Church may have to pay are distributed among members
in a way proportional to what each member would pay to the IRS and other
governmental bodies for the riches he contributed to the Church, should he
have selfishly chosen to keep them instead of selflessly donating them.
* Should governments try to prevent the Church from waging its Holy
activities, the Church may well revise its policy on the sin of receiving
relief from government, and organize the use of governmental funds
on a national scale.
* The Church, through its voluntary member activities, may also try to
enforce its views on education within the legislation, that are that
teachers should be free to teach what they want, and parents free to choose
what teachers to entrust their children to, and that state schools should
be privatized.
* The Church may similarly use its Holy Influence to lobby the legislatures
about other topics of importance.
Does such Church already exist? Is it possible at all?
If it isn't, what prevents its creation?
If it is, why don't we create it, join it,
and selflessly donate all our riches to it?
Optionally, the Church would go by another name, and it will begin
its activities with the kind of things that governments won't suspect,
so as to receive the official seal of recognition (and tax-exemption).
Possible names: Church of the Holy (Property) Right,
Church of (Economic) Freedom, Church of the Anti-Leviathan, etc.
Possible saints: J. Locke, D. Hume, F. Bastiat, F.A. Hayek, A. Rand, etc.
[ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ]
[ TUNES project for a Free Reflective Computing System | http://tunes.org ]
*EULA: By reading or responding to this message you agree that all my stated
opinions are correct.* "EULA" -- patent pending.
