345 Comments

It's pretty clear that Iowa is determined to obviate any trace of State / Church separation with this latest version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Apparently, the Higgins can have a house that they don't use built for them, get their mortgage "forgiven" at no expense to them, have for-profit organizations operate out of that house, and everything is both hunky and dory. And ANY effort to hold them to account amounts to: "an undue burden on the church."

Wow. L. Ron Hubbard had it right when he opined that, if you REALLY want to make money, get with a religion or make one up. All the Higgins lack is a Get Out Of Jail Free card, and that's probably next!

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LRon was ahead of his time

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He wrote crap scifi and was observant and cynical enough to take advantage of gullible people. And boy howdy, did he ever.

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He was trump before trump, another PT Barnum, “There’s a sucker born every minute”, Bernie Madoff. Lord, our history is littered with suckers and losers but they aren’t in our military cemeteries!

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Absolute garbage sci-fi, and I like sci-fi, but his is dumb, and "Dianetics" was so bad

I couldn't get past the first chapter. There were words, and they were in paragraphs, but in conjunction, they made no sense. They were like the assembly instructions you get with a product, written by a non-english speaker, using google translate.

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Then, pissed off taxpayers and dismissed petitioners should found churches, register to the IRS and sell their properties to it. Sauce for the goose et tout ça.

Joke aside, these RFRA laws are way more insidious and dangerous. How much time before some argue that giving access to archives in rape/abuse investigations is a unduly

burden ?

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With a law like that in place, it is all but (and maybe drop the "all but!") an open invitation for EVERY household, Christian or not, to establish: "The Church of Joe Smith and Family, LLC." Of course, if THAT happened, state property tax incomes would fall through the floorboards and the government would collapse.

Then, too, maybe that was the whole idea from the get-go!

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Brings to mind John Oliver's "Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption" bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrwOLITIe7U

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Trust me, when republicon governors and other elected people will see their revenues drop they will put an end to it.

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Don't count on it. They will blame the godless Marxist, commie fascists.

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Yep. They like it for government to lose revenue. Gives them an excuse to starve the poor, cut back on education, and privatize services that really should be public.

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OR ... far more likely just say that the republicons are placing, all together now in three-part harmony: "An undue burden on the church!"

Yeah, it would ultimately wreck the Iowa state economy, but what's a little economic chaos among friends? 🤦‍♂️

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Not the part who goes into funding public schools, firefighters or hospitals. The one earmarked for their pockets and other benefits like maintenance of their state owned home.

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Unfortunately the more prosperous Blue states and cities subsidize their greedy taking fingers.

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Oy! I'm a Marxist....I'm a fan of Julius, but Arthur is also quite worthy of high praise.

As for "godless", we all are....I'm just cognitively sound enough to realize it and courageous enough to say so publicly. ;-)

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Being a fan of Julius should make you a knife rest.

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Julius Marx? Nah, that'd make me an elephant hunter......in Alabama, in pyjamas.

(Hello, I must be going.......😉)

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Sep 23·edited Sep 23

Honestly your "joke" seems to be the only way these idiot laws get repealed any more. It requires some unpopular group taking advantage of the loophole before the politicians and voters won't want it. The idea of making evangelical Christians obey the same rules everyone else does because it's fair and good for the community, doesn't seem to resonate any more.

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Well, that's because evangelical Christians are the only "community" that *matters.*

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Already happening

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Absolutely

Each and every one of us should become a church

333,000,000 churches in America

It’s time

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Uh, every time a person is accused of a crime it is a considerable burden to defend themselves. Having a religion isn’t a get out of jail free card. There are innumerable instances of laws being used to persecute people, often by the government itself (look at the whole war on drugs, that was the government intentionally going after people of color and folks who they disagree with, hippies for one example.). That doesn’t mean that certain groups get to avoid any and all scrutiny, especially when the crimes are so blatant.

The parsonage exemption is at least a century out of date. It was meant for the preacher to live either inside the church or in a small home on the church property, not for just any old house the preacher chooses to buy for residence. It was meant for the preacher to be available 24/7, 365 to his congregation in case of emergencies that religious traditions demand a priest/preacher present. Churches do not do that anymore, there aren’t homes for the preacher on church property, preachers don’t need to attend deathbeds the way they used to, we can wait for burials because preservation of corpses is possible, last rites are rarely performed and they’re done during business hours nowadays. But primarily, the preachers aren’t interested in being on the property, living humbly and at the beck and call of the parish anymore. This exemption is just another way to suck more cash out of the grift. These folks live better than the majority of their congregations they’re stealing from and then the government gives them more leeway to suck money from the community.

I hope the town can find a way to correct this. This is why voting blue is imperative from now on. Wipe the Republican Party out of existence and make a better second party. We can split the Democratic Party up even.

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Their whole persecution scenario is entirely speculative. Generally, courts don't rule based on hypothetical bad things that some theoretical government worker might do in the future. But I guess if you are a minister seeking tax breaks, they do.

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Tell that to the Extreme Court, and their made up situations, like that web designer lady who claimed some (actually straight) guy wanted to marry a man, and had asked her to design a website (he hadn't) And they took an absolutely fictional scenario, and ruled in her lying favor.

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Perfectly stated Val.

And the town could solve this by NOT attending this church.

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They're a far right cultist church known for spewing hate at those not like them. Not quite Phelpsian, but close.

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Good grief, another Phelps-like personage is the stuff of nightmares.

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^THIS!!!^

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How much of “evangelism” is a direct effort to avoid taxes?

It’s not like most of these mega churches do anything to benefit society. Jeezus, Joel Osteen barred his enormous church doors to keep the homeless out during a hurricane.

Mega churches are politically active, rendering their tax free haven illegal. But, they don’t care. Buoyed by the feckless Republicons, they pull this shit with impunity…and still they live in their McMansions…paying zero taxes.

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Surely not more than 97 or 98% are just a tax dodge.

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Joel Osteen is one of the most egregious wastes of space and oxygen on the planet. I'd put him up there pretty close to JD and the Mango King.

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His uber-white veneers make me want to hurl.

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To paraphrase Sarah Palin: "All of it Katie".

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OT : DM continues to get better, they stopped the anesthesia and some of the meds for her blood pressure. Now, I just have to wait for her to wake up.

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To the Higgins'...

"Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do. Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give honor and respect to those who are in authority."

-- Romans 13:6-7

Funny, I've read that same scripture and it does not say "...except for Jeremy and Brooke Higgins."

(to see what "for these same reasons" means, check out Romans 13, Verses 1-5)

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But this is 'Murka. The gubmint is we the people and we is people so the we gotta pay all the taxes to us and not them damn revenooers.

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But remember it those welfare queens and illegal immigrates are milking the system.

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Yes, it is always projection with these assholes.

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So, to avoid all taxes in Iowa, one must simply set up a church and put all your assets in the church's name. One also gets to ignore any laws you don't like because Jesus. Reckless driving? On the way to a pastoral call. Rob a bank? Mandatory donation to the church. Weapons stockpiled? Refer to the book of armaments.

These people want all the laws to protect them and not bind them while everyone they hate must be bound and not protected.

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And Jesus said, give to Caesar what is Caesar, unless you can claim a religious exception under 14.7 paragraph 6.

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They don't mind rendering unto Caesar, as long as they get to BE Caesar.

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One hand sure as hell is washing the other here.

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I'd like to see them "rendered".

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"But, but, but, your honors, we can't let anyone 𝘴𝘦𝘦 the evidence! It all proves that our client is guilty!"

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I knew I was trying to think of a movie reference! Damn you, cup of coffee I didn't have early enough to get my meme-recall warmed up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx32b5igLwA

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Sep 24·edited Sep 24

Let your finger do the walking.

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Trump probably thinks they're telling him he's #1.

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He needs people TELLING him that? Isn't it already so friggin' obvious?/s

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Christian churches are like Trump - they sleaze the law, tell people stories about how awful other people are and then, with the full force of the system in their favor they claim to be victims. Ugh. Cultish.

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I wish I had seen this story earlier. I just wasted 1200 bucks that's due at the end of the month.

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Marion is just down the road from you. ;-)

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Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption

One of the best

https://youtu.be/7y1xJAVZxXg?si=0ytxn1Xtxc3SwAJH

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Scam scam scam scam lovely scam.

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Well yes, it's a bit of scam but it's less scam than scam, scam, private jet, scam, scam, faith healing, scam and scam.

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Christianity is the religion that broke the United States, I swear. It's not like Christians police their own well, and now they're insisting nobody else do that policing, either. So much for the whole 'but you meet better people at church!' argument my parents attempted at every turn.

Christians do not need (nor do they deserve) special laws only they get to use. Laws cannot work that way, it's always a problem and never works out to the benefit of the people at large. Tax the churches and be done with it, this whining about how 'filling out paperwork is a cruel burden on my delicate faith!' garbage should be laughed at. The whole point of religious 'faith' is the burden it places on the faithful anyway, you're taking this burden because it's what you want, and that is not the government's problem.

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