New Report Claims Government Could Help Churches Pay Their Pastors’ Salaries Through Stimulus Package

This is theft from taxpayers, pure and simple.


591
591 points

President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and congressional Republicans are apparently applying the $2 trillion stimulus relief package to churches as well, which would force taxpayers to fund religious organizations against their will and in direct violation of the Constitution.

The separation of church and state is one of the foundational values of our nation, but the Trump administration has been blatantly chipping away at it for the last three years.

Now he wants to hand taxpayer dollars to churches across the country to pay pastors’ salaries and other bills with part of the stimulus package passed last month.

Evangelicals begged Trump to let churches open by Easter Sunday — not for spiritual reasons — but because they would lose lots of money due to there being few people in the pews. And that means wealthy pastors can’t keep their bank accounts fat. Of course, Trump’s Easter plan blew up because the coronavirus pandemic has only worsened, now infecting over 300,000 and killing over 10,000.

And so, a new plan is to make sure churches have access to the stimulus package aid through the Small Business Administration (SBA) Loan program, which Pence himself agreed to after pressure from evangelicals.

“There is a portion of that revenue that just by virtue of people’s habits and practices doesn’t come back,” he said of church donations during a call with pastors.

As a result, the SBA has even specifically stated that churches are eligible for these funds.

“Faith-based organizations are eligible to receive SBA loans regardless of whether they provide secular social services,” the SBA said. “No otherwise eligible organization will be disqualified from receiving a loan because of the religious nature, religious identity, or religious speech of the organization.”

In short, even the Westboro Baptist Church could get their bigoted hateful hands on tax dollars, as could televangelists who don’t need the money. Also, it’s doubtful that an Islamic organization or other non-Christian organizations will have the same access. It should also be pointed out that if churches are “businesses” now, they should be taxed.

Churches are literally going from fleecing their congregations to fleecing the entire nation. Atheists are about to watch their tax dollars go into the pocket of “Christian” con-men like John Hagee or Joel Osteen.

There are ways churches can still receive donations from parishioners right now, but they would rather steal from taxpayers instead. It’s outrageous and proves a point made by founding father Benjamin Franklin all the way back in 1790:

When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, ‘tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.”

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