11.10.2005
Friendship with the world
Here is a story about a liberal church in Pasadena, CA that is danger of losing its tax-exempt status as a 501(c)3 for an anti-war sermon that was preached last October. The IRS is investigating the church because of a sermon that was delivered by a guest rector denouncing George Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq.
So many churches have taken the carrot that the government has dangled in front of them, and consequently found themselves in a precarious place. While we can debate how involved the church should actually be in politics, there is NO debate over who has biblical authority over the church. We have only one head, and it is not caesar. When churches incorporate as a 501(c)3, they become, by definition, creatures of the state. The state grants them the right to be a corporation. The church submits to casear and is bound by his laws. How can the church serve two masters?
Now the irony in all this is, by my understanding, that the state has told churches that they are not obligated to submit to it anyways! The IRS automatically exempts churches. I'm sure that is not new information for most, but for those that are new to the conversation, www.hushmoney.org is a great site for information on taxation and the church. Here is an article on the facts of 501(c)3 incorporation. From the article:
Do you know if your church is incorporated? Our PCA church is. When I asked one of the elders before we joined if they were a 501(c)3 and why, he answered that they were, and that the elders had honestly never thought about the issue. In fact the PCA as a denomination long ago decided that it must be incorporated. Here is the 1983 position paper on taxation. We need to be deliberate in our thinking as Christians.
It seems that quite a few people get upset about the government getting involved in church affairs. They talk about free speech and the like. But it is the same thing as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against parents. If you want to be friends with the world, then you play by their rules. If you give your children to the state, then you give them your authority and must submit to it. If a church seeks the favor of the state by applying for 501(c)3 than they must play by the state's rules.
Matthew 22:21 "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Why do we give to casear what is lawfully God's? The state has no right to my children, and so I won't give them to it. And the state certainly has no claim on the church of Christ, and that is why the church must say no to becoming a creature of the state.
IRS Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations
Hushmoney.org
Here is a story about a liberal church in Pasadena, CA that is danger of losing its tax-exempt status as a 501(c)3 for an anti-war sermon that was preached last October. The IRS is investigating the church because of a sermon that was delivered by a guest rector denouncing George Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq.
So many churches have taken the carrot that the government has dangled in front of them, and consequently found themselves in a precarious place. While we can debate how involved the church should actually be in politics, there is NO debate over who has biblical authority over the church. We have only one head, and it is not caesar. When churches incorporate as a 501(c)3, they become, by definition, creatures of the state. The state grants them the right to be a corporation. The church submits to casear and is bound by his laws. How can the church serve two masters?
Now the irony in all this is, by my understanding, that the state has told churches that they are not obligated to submit to it anyways! The IRS automatically exempts churches. I'm sure that is not new information for most, but for those that are new to the conversation, www.hushmoney.org is a great site for information on taxation and the church. Here is an article on the facts of 501(c)3 incorporation. From the article:
In the words of Steve Nestor, IRS Sr. Revenue Officer (ret.):
"I am not the only IRS employee who's wondered why churches go to the government and seek permission to be exempted from a tax they didn't owe to begin with, and to seek a tax deductible status that they've always had anyway. Many of us have marveled at how church leaders want to be regulated and controlled by an agency of government that most Americans have prayed would just get out of their lives. Churches are in an amazingly unique position, but they don't seem to know or appreciate the implications of what it would mean to be free of government control."
Do you know if your church is incorporated? Our PCA church is. When I asked one of the elders before we joined if they were a 501(c)3 and why, he answered that they were, and that the elders had honestly never thought about the issue. In fact the PCA as a denomination long ago decided that it must be incorporated. Here is the 1983 position paper on taxation. We need to be deliberate in our thinking as Christians.
It seems that quite a few people get upset about the government getting involved in church affairs. They talk about free speech and the like. But it is the same thing as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against parents. If you want to be friends with the world, then you play by their rules. If you give your children to the state, then you give them your authority and must submit to it. If a church seeks the favor of the state by applying for 501(c)3 than they must play by the state's rules.
Matthew 22:21 "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Why do we give to casear what is lawfully God's? The state has no right to my children, and so I won't give them to it. And the state certainly has no claim on the church of Christ, and that is why the church must say no to becoming a creature of the state.
IRS Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations
Hushmoney.org
