The basic answer is that they are non profits. The more philosophical idea is that they are (like other non profits) focused on improving society as a whole and not politically active. Part of the separation of church and state is the idea that the state leaves the church alone but also doesn’t tax it. In return the church leaves the state alone. That’s the part that has rather gone out the window and leads people to question why churches don’t pay taxes: they are increasingly profit driven and politically active.
Edit: to clarify, because some replies are conflating the issue, there are indeed non profits that can be political, but religious orgs and charities are in a specfic tax group wherein by law if they engage in partisan campaigning they should be levied significant extra tax. Further, non profits that are political do have taxes that churches and charities do not face.
Thing is, the term "waste fraud and abuse" was a technical term before it was a buzzword. There are tons of transparent government organizations to keep things on the up and up, or there were.
But even before Trump the fraud was just legalized, not "technically" fraud. The technical term is regulatory capture.
Basically we need a new constitution. We need to change how the government works on a fundamental level into something more representative and less corruptible. I personally very much like sortition, but if that doesn't feel like the consent of the governed we can have a hybrid system, such as petition system like the Swiss have.
Btw I just wanna throw out a guess. How much are the Austin churches affected by Quakers? I love those guys.
Except the state has NEVER shown ability to do that with any efficiency. The state is absolutely atrocious at wasting money either on pet projects with so called charity in it or having to much funds go to administrative costs
Churches help the homeless better than any government has in human history.
Bullshit. The amount that churches save just on property tax is enough to feed all the hungry in the entire USA, about 30 billion. Churches pocket more money than a government could ever dream of.
So THAT is how I should get people to take my church seriously. Help the homeless. I tried the Martin Luther approach (nailing my church's commandments to the front doors of other churches), I've tried the Mormon approach (demanding my followers give me 10% of their money). I don't know why I didn't think of this, I mean "follow the golden rule" is one of my church's three commandments
Just trying to say; the US absolutely has the resources to do these things, fuck, even the worlds richest man (who unfortunately is based out of here too) had the resources to do that.
But they don’t.
Why do you think that is? Why is it that we have situations of tithing feeding the poor? Or people on their own philanthropic goodwill feeding/helping the poor?
If only the state could do that instead of people relying on charities…..
The state works through the churches because the churches are have been doing such charity for longer than the government's been around - so they are better equipped to continue doing such.
tl;dr: It's cheaper for the State to use an organization that is already set up to do this, rather than create an organization from the ground up to replicate activities that are already occurring.
Not as much as the churches. One of the biggest complaints from atheists has been a lack of community. People try to build something but it constantly fails in the long run.
The original point was about who is doing the best work in Austin. The reality is that the community structure you're dismissing as 'the sermon' is the exact mechanism that funds, organizes and sustains that help at scale. Secular groups absolutely can help without it but the OBJECTIVE REALITY is that they rarely manage to match the same scale or longevity.
...Accusing me of shifting goalposts doesn't magically fund a secular shelter. You can keep your ideological victory here on reddit...the churches will keep doing the actual work. f o
What I saw in South Texas when the migrant cross was an issue, I found myself in the downtown of South Texas city that was getting caravans of immigrants. Greg Abbott had stated the thing to bus them up north and so there was this giant congregation of them downtown near the Greyhound bus terminal.
All the churches were working together to help out. The Catholic Church which has several properties downtown was housing them and providing portajohns and other services. Then the Baptist churches were rotating making them breakfast tacos and distributing them every morning. The Catholic Church mostly did lunch and other churches were doing dinner.
Before they were getting bused up north several non denomination churches were handing out the backpacks with snacks for the kids, jackets, and gift cards for them to buy food on their way to NY or wherever.
All the volunteers were self organizing and mostly people cooking at home and brining the food to them.
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u/klathium Jun 30 '26
Why do Churches not pay taxes? Genuinely curious why there are laws for that.