yeah, some churches do a lot of good things. but i tell you, every time i go thru little rock (which is always to get somewhere else, i never go to little rock!) i drive by this huge pentecostal...beast. two massive buildings, fancy as can be. the money spent on that in no way should have been considered 'charity' and thus, should be taxable. they don't pay property taxes on these massive places either. and it's my understanding they just bought 80 acres of prime real estate right across the highway.
i volunteer at a food pantry in crossett, also put on by a church. thankfully it gets a lot of support from area retailers and large employers. the church itself has such small membership, there's no way it could do it alone.
i just think instead of churches getting carte blanche across the board for every dollar, they should be accountable, and get exemptions just like we do, for what is actually put towards charity.
and it burns me to no end to know my former 'church', who is probably the largest property owner in this country, and owns countless works of art that are priceless, declared bankruptcy and hid funds in many dioceses to avoid paying the child molester piper. bad enough to cover up, to move priests to new areas (with new victims), but then to lie, cheat and cover up to avoid any repercussions...ugh, just angers me so much.
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