The first amendment contains the right to exercise one’s religion, the right to free speech, and the right to a free press.
Trump is directly targeting individual schools and individual news organizations because he wants to suppress them for when he finally tries to become ruler for life. Schools are being targeted for allowing a diverse set of students to attend and speak freely on their campuses.
Meanwhile, many religious organizations are out there acting as de facto campaign headquarters for the GOP all while enjoying near absolute tax free status. They’re some of the only institutions he’s not trying to crush with tariffs as well because they offer absolutely no products other than make believe to their congregants.
Should the next Democratic administration revoke the tax free status of all religious organizations within the United States? I do mean all. Even the ones not supporting the GOP. Even the ones Democratic politicians attend. This targeting of specific institutions to compel them to do whatever the current president says is complete nonsense and untenable in the long run. Don’t get me wrong, all religious institutions should still exist for those who believe in them and their adherents should be able to speak freely, but should we really keep giving them government handouts that other organizations protected under the first amendment don’t enjoy?
Edit: Also, keep in mind, MAGA will almost certainly be designated a religious organization in the future so the leaders of the movement can avoid taxes.
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The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.
The first amendment contains the right to exercise one’s religion, the right to free speech, and the right to a free press.
Trump is directly targeting individual schools and individual news organizations because he wants to suppress them for when he finally tries to become ruler for life. Schools are being targeted for allowing a diverse set of students to attend and speak freely on their campuses.
Meanwhile, many religious organizations are out there acting as de facto campaign headquarters for the GOP all while enjoying near absolute tax free status. They’re some of the only institutions he’s not trying to crush with tariffs as well because they offer absolutely nothing other than make believe to their congregants.
Should the next Democratic administration revoke the tax free status of all religious organizations within the United States? I do mean all. Even the ones not supporting the GOP. Even the ones Democratic politicians attend. This targeting of specific institutions to compel them to do whatever the current president says is complete nonsense and untenable in the long run. Don’t get me wrong, all religious institutions should still exist for those who believe in them and their adherents should be able to speak freely, but should we really keep giving them government handouts that other organizations protected under the first amendment don’t enjoy?
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Yes. It’s time for Democrats to start playing mean.
Yes, absolutely yes. My only hesitation would be because I do know there are a lot of good local churches and religious organizations that are active in providing for and giving back to the communities they are in and I would hate to see them negatively impacted.
Edit: Focus on the MEGA churches, as someone else pointed out, base it on assets and revanue and that should help protect the smaller community focused orgs.
They should more strictly enforce the prohibition on political advocacy in non-profits.
If they have actual video or audio of political advocacy, use that and remove their tax exemption.
If any church is using their pulpit to deliver political support of a politician, yes. Most tax exempt non-profits are at risk if they do that, I don’t know why churches get a pass.
No, absolutely not.
“Trump does bad thing” doesn’t mean that Democrats should start hurting random entities. If you want to go after Trump, fine, but thinking that any religious organization must therefore be part of the problem is just dumb and not based in reality.
Churches should have pay taxes and get deductions based on how much of the profits minus the money spent on the community. If they are buying planes for preachers then they need justify the expense.
I think the next Democratic administration needs to focus on restoring basic checks and Balances, not this absolutely insignificant thing.
You know how they say all rights have limits?
Just for the sake of discussion, let’s say there are KKK exercising their rights of free speech on campus. And black people that have to pass by these groups to get to where they need to go on that campus feel threatened. Is that ok in the spirit of free speech? Or let’s say there are religious groups on campus exercising their rights of free speech going against lgbtq. And lgbtq people feel threatened. Is that ok by free speech.
You’ve posed a tit for tat question. Im simply saying the “cuts both ways“ goes for a lot of things.
How would they do that in the minority?
While 84% of people in the US who identify as ‘Atheist’, and 70% of all ‘unaffiliated with any religion’ in the US are Democrats? 38% of all Protestants, 44% of all Catholics, and 69% and 66% of Jews and Muslims respectively are also Democrats.
Not exactly going to be popular. Often some of the most progressively-aligned (not officiall aligned with any political party) organizations in many cities are Religious Organizations. The MLK Day Celebration in my city? Run by a Church, one with a long history in the Civil Rights Struggles of the past and today.
This would be cutting off the Democrats’ nose to spite their face, just just because they hope the blood-loss for Republicans would be even worse if their nose was cut off too.
I think to should be done in a way that leaves small neighborhood churches/temples etc alone but targets for-Profit mega churches.
Just separate it out by total assets owned, payroll and revenue.
No, because that’s not how the fucking law works.
If we want to remove tax exempt status from religious organizations, cool, get a bill passed through Congress like we’re supposed to.
We’re not Authoritarians.
Best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, second best time is today
Ideally, religions wouldn’t be tax exempt. Not because of political affiliations but because I don’t think religious people should be exempt from laws of any kind.
At the very least, I think they should have to prove they’re doing REAL material charity work. Not buying preachers jet planes or having the kids church group ring bells at nursing homes.
Yes. And state level CPS agencies should treat religious indoctrination of children as a kind of child abuse.
> Schools are being targeted for allowing a diverse set of students to attend and speak freely on their campuses.
I don’t think tit-for-tat should be the goal here. Just because Trump is behaving like an asshole and ignoring people’s rights doesn’t mean that Democrats should do the same the next time they gain power. None of use want to live in a world where that strategy runs its course.
> Meanwhile, many religious organizations are out there acting as de facto campaign headquarters for the GOP all while enjoying near absolute tax free status.
Churches are banned from participating in politics, so if it can be proven that a church is encouraging people to vote for one candidate over the other then they should absolutely lose their tax-free status. This could include organized campaigning, church officers speaking at political events, or informal stuff like a priest saying “Jesus wants you to vote for Trump” or whatever. All of that is prohibited.
> Should the next Democratic administration revoke the tax free status of all religious organizations within the United States? I do mean all.
This is a more complicated question than it appears.
My answer is: Maybe.
Churches are tax exempt because they are intended to be non-profit organizations who use donations to provide for people in their community. Many churches do not use their money that way, and they should lose their tax exempt status.
For instance all of those Megachurches that have huge campuses, have dozens of non-clergy on staff, offer paid teaching and lecturing services and have pastors like Osteen that live in multi-million dollar mansions. I don’t care if they also run soup kitchens, they are clearly directly profiting off of their donations. Tax away their tax exempt status, if they can afford mansions and private jets they can afford to pay their fair share of taxes.
However I personally know of small churches with small parishes that use every penny they get to either pay the bills on the church (like heat & electricity) or use that money to help poor families in their neighborhood and provide kids programs. I could see the argument for allowing them to keep their tax exempt status because they’re operating the way a non-profit should. Like the priest for the church I am most familiar with drives a 2002 Buick, they’re clearly not profiting from their church services.
The solution to the weaponization of the IRS by the Trump administration is to not weaponize the IRS by any administration.
What we need is to not elect an authoritarian President who tramples on freedom of speech and free expression. Fascism is bad actually.
Nope: Tax exemption privileges are a carrot-and-stick policy. Insofar as a church does not meddle in electoral politics, *at all*, it can keep it. The moment they start endorsing candidates, donating or solicitng donations to their campaigns, hosting campaign events at their churches, etc? THEN you bring down the stick, and send in the IRS to come crashing down on them like a ton of bricks.
The problem with the government’s religious policy is not the existence of the carrot, it’s squeamishness to swing the stick when the religious right steps out of line.
You know how many 501(c)s ALSO very very much skirt the line of “totally not a PAC?
Don’t get me wrong, I have no love for the mega churches, but they are unique in this.
Maybe yes. But we shouldn’t confuse “not taking taxes” with “giving handouts.”
I think this would play poorly in elections and not be worth whatever benefits you are imagining.
If we ignored that I don’t think we should single out religious organizations for different treatment one way or the other. If they are doing things non profits are doing that would threaten their tax exempt status they should lose it, if they aren’t they shouldn’t.
I do think a better status quo would be to eliminate tax exempt status for all entities regardless (charitable deductions as well). It seems to me a lot of “non-profits” are kind of shady to be honest and we’d be better of directly providing whatever services we’re relying on them (and it’s not like they wouldn’t still exist absent that status.)
I think people on here vastly overestimate the power that the church still holds. Most Americans don’t go. Non belief is the fastest growing “belief”. The right by and large doesn’t use church as any sort of basis for anything. It’s a boogeyman that yes was important in the past but in 2025 far less so. It’s important to know who you’re fighting lest you talk right past them
Probably not. A move like that would get severe pushback, legal challenges, and be viewed as an anti-Christian attack by an unfortunate number of voters. And who knows if it would even work? What if they just hide the money? Do we have a plan to enforce this new policy? Are we planning on marching pastors into court in handcuffs? How’s that gonna go for us?
I think attempting to remove the tax exception for religious institutions is a great long term goal, but we’ll have to make the proper preparations. You’ll need congressional support, sympathetic judges, voters who are ready to accept the change, and, most importantly, an enforcement plan.