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Oct. 12, 2019 - Liberty Hangout - Kaitlin Bennett
13:39
College Students Want to Tax Churches
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Are we forcing anyone to believe in same-sex marriage?
By taxing them, yes.
You're extorting them.
You don't have to believe it.
You know, you'll just get taxed and extorted.
And that's acceptable.
You're being uninclusive.
I understand that that has something to do with what you believe in.
And you're allowed your own beliefs, but beliefs have consequences.
If a church is trying to tell people that they can't get married, then they're taking a political stance.
And you're not tax-exempt if you're a political entity, so it makes sense to me.
I think churches are kind of a drain on society as as they are right now.
You know, they get free ride anyway.
Presidential candidate Beta O'Rourke, or some of you may know him as Robert Francis, has recently stated he wants to strip churches of their tax exempt status if they don't support same-sex marriage.
We're here in downtown Kent to see if people think that's progressive and inclusive.
Okay, so yesterday, Beto or work, do you know who he is?
Yeah, I know.
Do you like him?
Yeah.
Okay.
Alright, cool.
That's awesome.
So he recently said, well, actually it was yesterday, so it's very recent.
He said he supports stripping churches of their tax exempt status if they don't support same-sex marriages.
Because we have to get everybody on the the same side that gay people deserve to have every right that everybody else has.
Okay.
Do you think that's a progressive way to get to an inclusive society?
Yeah, I think that if a church is trying to tell people that they can't get married, then they're taking a political stance.
And you're not taxempt if you're a political entity, so it makes sense to me.
You think it's political, not religious?
No.
Uh human rights are not a religious issue.
They're innate.
They're gonna take away their tax exempt status and they're basically gonna punish them for not believing in same-sex marriages.
Do you think that's how we forward into a progressive society?
Uh I've never I need to eat more before I answer answer this as truthfully as I can, but uh, yeah, I mean, I don't know, I think churches are kind of a drain on society as as they are right now.
You know, they they get free ride anyway.
They're kind of at the whims to high school the government, really.
I mean to uh whatever policy changes we need to make for that.
I I I personally think they should, you know, they should be open to LGBT.
I think it is ridiculous, but I do think churches should not be tax exempt.
Okay.
Um I live very close to one of the mega churches, and it's you look at it and you see how many people just from tax benefits could be benefited from the dollar amount that they're avoiding.
So specifically talking about removing that tax exempt status and invoking taxes upon churches who don't support same-sex marriages, you would support that.
Hesitantly, yes.
Okay.
Not because I'm a church hater, not because I hate America.
But do you hate the First Amendment and the freedom of religion?
Absolutely not.
That's not necessarily what I think it is either.
Because isn't it their own right to to you know marry whom they want?
Yes.
Is it their right to force another person to believe something?
You don't have to perform an action to believe something, right?
People go into work every day with jobs they hate.
Absolutely disgust.
But you do it because you have to.
You do it because it's your job.
You signed up to do that.
That is your responsibility.
I understand that there is a line that is drawn between responsibility and being pushed too far, but this isn't harming people.
You're not physically getting injured by this.
It may not agree with your ideals, but there's people around the world and in your community, most likely even your neighbors that don't have the same political ideals as you.
Should we tax them and take away their tax exempt status if they don't support same-sex marriage?
I can't say uh I can't say for sure, but just off top my head without eating any food, yes.
I would say yes, yeah.
Do you think it's a slippery slope for the government to tax people based on their religious beliefs?
Well, it's it's not what they're taxing, it's what they're not taxing.
So everyone gets taxed, and we've chosen to exempt Churches for some reason.
Marriage is a union between two people.
I understand that there is the aspect of, yes, let's get married in a church, you know, let's do it in front of the eyes of God.
If you want to do that, that's fine.
Not everyone believes that.
Some people want to get married in a church and they are LGBTQ, and they do believe in Christ, and that's totally their own right.
The question at stake is is it a slippery slope to get rid of that separation between church and state?
Are we punishing people because of their First Amendment right?
Are we forcing people to believe something that goes vehemently against their religion?
Because you can be against same sex marriages, but not hate gay people.
Absolutely, yeah.
Are we are we or is that too far to force them to pay money for their beliefs?
So that's I I wouldn't necessarily say that that's paying money for keeping your beliefs.
Because if you were paying money to keep your beliefs, that would mean that regardless of whether that church is open, regardless of whether they host same-sex marriages, you were still losing your taxes and status if you didn't believe or if you did believe in Christ.
That is what I would think paying for your religion is.
As far as paying for not hosting same sex marriage, that's ultimately a a choice.
No, it's just not believing.
It's it's not believing.
So it believes if a church, if a church says, this church right here, let's say United Methodist Church of Fulton Ham, Ohio, we don't believe in same-sex marriages.
That's what this church, we're Christians, we don't believe in that.
We're Methodists, we don't believe in that.
Then the government would come in and say, because you don't believe in same-sex marriages, you don't you don't believe in that, it goes against your religion.
We're gonna tax you.
We're gonna put more of a financial burden on you until you change your mind.
And then when you start being more progressive and accepting of LGBTQ same sex marriages, then you don't have to pay taxes anymore.
That's what's going on.
Is there a problem with that?
No.
No.
And I no, I say no because um LGBTQ people in America have been consistently and vehemently villainized, seen as wrong or disgusting for the ways that they or that their sexual orientation and the way that they express themselves.
You know, it there's so many stigmas and stereotypes about gay women or gay men or bisexual men or you know, transsexual people, and those are all terrible.
You think it's terrible to I mean, isn't it terrible to tax a whole church and a and a religion because of what they believe?
If you were if you were taxing a religion, you would tax every Christian.
Christians do get taxed.
But you can't you can't have any progressivity without some sort there has to be some sort of consequence for you not doing what is right.
Oh, I think all churches need to be taxed.
Okay.
No matter what.
Why?
Uh, because they're still part of the world, everybody else gets taxed, uh, they shouldn't be exempt.
So charitable organizations be taxed too?
Uh no.
I don't think so.
What's the difference?
Why why are churches because they're considered charitable organizations as well.
That's part of the reason why they're tax exempt.
Uh I don't see a lot of churches always giving like people think they are.
There's a few that are out there that uh do get all yeah, they do give, but I don't see a lot of them doing that as much as they should be.
They're they keep a lot of that money.
Should mosques be taxed too?
Yes.
If you're if you're going to have a a certain fight or a certain religious institution that's gonna get taxed because they're excluding somebody, yes, other religious institutions need that as well.
But there aren't, at least publicly, you don't see in the media very often mosques uh refusing LGBTQ marriages, at least in the terms of You can't walk into a mosque.
A woman can't walk into a mosque without the the assistance of a man.
So that's not LGBTQ.
So we tax them for that?
They throw they throw LGBTQ people off buildings in their countries.
They're not welcome in their churches.
But that's their that that's not their country.
That's where their religion originates from.
That's not their country.
They live here, they were born here.
Okay, that's not what I was talking about, but okay.
I'm personally a Christian who supports gay people, but I can't be in everybody's home and tell them exactly what I believe, you know.
Uh so as if I I mean it'd be the same thing as if uh a church were to say, well, you can't support gay people anymore.
I don't agree with them.
I think eventually, hopefully, that that mindset eventually starts ruling out, but I don't think you should punish someone for in my opinion, having the wrong opinion, but it shouldn't be a punishable act.
Are we forcing anyone to believe in same-sex marriage?
By taxing them, yes.
You're extorting them.
You don't have to believe it.
You know, you'll just get taxed and extorted.
And that's acceptable.
You're being uninclusive.
I understand that that has something to do with what you believe in.
And you're allowed your own beliefs, but beliefs have consequences.
Beliefs have consequences.
I think that if you're going to do a tax, it has to be everybody.
I think singling out anybody for any specific reason is wrong.
Because if we're not all on the same playing field and we're not all playing the same game, then we can't start at the same time.
We can't, we can't continue and progress if we're not all already on the same place.
What do you think about having an entire town hall dedicated to LGBTQ people?
Uh uh.
I have nothing against them, but I just don't think it's necessary.
Why not?
Ugh.
I don't know.
I think there's other things that are more important than that.
Like the economy and jobs and right?
Yeah, sure.
Yeah, sure.
So basically punishing churches for their religious beliefs.
Okay.
Do you think that is the way towards a progressive society?
No, I do not.
No.
I just don't I just don't think that's the right and the right move at all.
That's what I don't understand.
It's always like one-sided.
You they talk about tolerance, to talk about, oh, everybody's a free thinker, we're gonna be tolerant of your views, but then when it comes up to your views, you you can't have your own views.
That's where I think that that conundrum we're in, the hypocrisy, it's it's it's so ridiculous.
Um, I feel like if you believe in something, it shouldn't determine like if they're gonna tax you or not.
Um, I mean, it's your belief.
If you believe in same-sex marriage, it shouldn't determine if you should get taxed.
I think that's ridiculous.
Do you guys think that's the way we should go to have more equality in the country?
Uh no, I don't think that's the way to go about it, but I do believe in same-sex marriages.
Everyone should have their own equal right.
Okay, alright.
Why don't you support taxing churches for their beliefs?
Uh, because it's it's just religion.
I don't it's not like it's a community type of thing.
They don't charge people for stuff.
I feel like honestly, like churches if churches aren't gonna support it either way, so like what's the point of I mean, I don't see the point of punishing them for something that they're not gonna support either way.
Rather they do support it or they don't support it, like I don't know.
It just seems you don't think it would change their mind.
I don't think it would change anything, honestly.
Um, as long as you want to keep church and state separate, then I say you just keep church and state separate.
Yeah, I agree with that, and I'm not a religious person at all, so and I don't go to church, but I do think you need to keep it separate.
So I I don't know.
I uh that's a touchy subject, I'm sure for a lot of people.
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