Plan B Forum

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/13/us/s ... stors.html

Muslim gatherings permit female imams (on the whole - there are some subdivisions that still do not). Many orthodox Jewish communities do not allow female rabbis. And of course you won't see female Catholic priests.

We don't allow female genital mutilation although that is an accepted religious rite in some parts of the world. We don't appear to have constitutional pearl-clutching on that one. So why do we still allow SBs and Catholics (etc.) to operate tax free?

I imagine we could legally tax all religious institutions, although it could be overturned using the old "the power to tax is the power to destroy" chestnut. However, i do not believe the government could tax some churches based on beliefs they do not support (like this) and exempt other ones; that would be unconstitutional. There are some exceptions from this, but they are few and far between.

FWIW, it wouldn't bother me to tax churches, but it could be a big fight.

A friend with a lot of experience in Africa said that the greatest conflict in churches there was on the question of female clergy.

In any case it is a problem for them to solve. Using the State to force them is illiberal and totalitarian. As an authentic liberal it is more repugnant than what they are doing.

Yrs,
Rubato

ex-khobar Andy wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 14, 2023 5:05 am

So why do we still allow SBs and Catholics (etc.) to operate tax free?

Perhaps you are in favor of shooting cockerels in order to prevent sunrise.

They are treacherous, those "because this, then that" arguments

Wouldn’t a garrote be most useful? We are talking about silencing priests and pastors, aren’t we? Or are we supposed to use the entrails of a king? Or is it the other way around?

Funny, rube. A quiet end for roosters is to be preferred. Locally since we must put up with multiple freight trains and their piercing whistles as they approach nearby road crossings between 4 and 7 a.m., the offending fowl could perhaps be tied to the tracks (and gagged) beforehand.

BoSoxGal wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 14, 2023 3:06 am

Wouldn’t a garrote be most useful? We are talking about silencing priests and pastors, aren’t we? Or are we supposed to use the entrails of a king? Or is it the other way around?

There is no silencing of priests and pastors. They are quite vociferous. What is happening is that an organization is deciding whether or not the organization's rules should be followed by groups that belongs to the organization. And it's possible (even if only remotely possible) that the rules will be changed if sufficient groups in that organization can muster the votes necessary to make those changes.

If the particular congregations are told they are no longer members of the organization, they will most likely form themselves into a new association using a similar title to the original one. No one is being silenced. Baptists came into being as a churches which split from Anglicanism over believer baptism (mainly). Southern ones then split from the northern Baptists because of the civil war and for a long time infighting went on over the status of blacks, which eventually was resolved more or less satisfactorily. In 2000, resistance to the growing rigidity of the Convention core (in an organization that once rejected all creeds but the Bible itself) caused Texas (!!!) SBC to drastically reduce their huge funding contribution to the national Convention. The issue of homosexuality has resulted in the breakaway of several congregations as is likely over female ordination.

One may disagree over such issues as whether infant baptism or believer baptism is the "correct" mode; or whether leaders should be men only; or
whether homosexuality is an abomination or a matter of pride. But those who don't belong to an organization don't have a vote in how it is administered and those who do . . . well they will vote and act according to their beliefs and no doubt everyone will survive the shock. Usually people are OK with removing themselves, no matter how regretfully, from any association that they are unable to change from within.

T

The primitive baptists they believe,
You can’t go to heaven
Unless you wash your feet
And that’s all
Oh honey that’s all
You better have Jesus
Oh honey that’s all

The African Methodists they believe the same
‘Cause they know denomination ain’t a thing. But a name
And that’s all

Denomination blues. Ry Cooder Genius.

Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. ~ Diderot, Jean Meslier