Holy War?

Political contributions are not tax deductable, and they shouldn’t be.  Although in the past there have been short periods which allowed small amounts to be deducted from taxable income these tax rules were soon discarded. The reason is obvious, but frankly the understanding eludes most Americans.

When an item is deductable it effectively joins the general tax-paying public to participate in the contribution. For example, Mitt Romney, who touted his large charitable contributions, gave most of it as a tithe to the Mormon Church.  The hundreds of thousands of dollars he gave to his church reduced his taxes by hundreds of thousands (probably about 40% Federal & State). Therefore the US Taxpayers and the Taxpayers of California essentially contributed to the Mormon Church through a loss in revenue.  Every dollar he gave to the Mormon Church cost him about 60 cents and the Taxpayers 40.

This is one very public way the congressionally driven US Tax Code engages in social policy, no different than milk supports, oil depletions, carbon credits or five thousand other lesser known pork barrel rules. State tax codes are no different.

In 1954 then Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson led a change in the tax law to address political activism by charitable organizations (called 501(c)3 organizations), whose receipt of a contribution allowed the contributor to take an itemized charitable deduction.

Churches in particular had been acting as quasi-political arms of certain candidates and the taxpayer was picking up the tab generated by the contributions of wealthy donors.

The so-called Johnson Amendment became tax law.  It disallowed any 501(c)3 organization from participating in any partisan political activity at threat of losing their tax status.  It has remained, for the obvious reasons, an unquestioned part of our tax law for 62 years, until perhaps…now.

In Donald J(erkhead) Trump’s disjointed and rambling introduction yesterday of Mike Pence as his running mate, he unveiled for the first time (to my knowledge) his new policy to attack the Johnson Amendment if he became President.

I had to get past the humor of ineptness which he obviously had in misunderstanding what he was talking about.  He initially inferred the law was created by Lyndon Johnson as President, then said; “(because of the amendment) you are absolutely shunned, if you’re evangelical…if you want to talk religion, you lose your tax-exempt status.”  Gosh, all those shunned evangelicals.  I wonder what they’ve been talking about all these years.

What Trump probably thinks and what his uninformed listeners hear is that a violation of this tax law somehow leads to Churches paying taxes.  Churches currently can preach politics as much as they want; it’s just that if they do you can’t take an itemized deduction when you give money to them. They’ll still pay no taxes.

What Donald was actually trying to cram into his little pea-brain is an effort, currently championed by Jerry Falwell, Jr., which is making it onto the Republican Platform this go-around.  It is an effort to remove the Johnson Amendment from the US Tax Code.

Of course Trump has no more understanding of the rule than a Kansas chicken plucker, but those like Falwell know that elimination of that rule will not only free them up to start campaigning for Conservative candidates from the pulpit, but it would begin to bring in contribution revenue to these “churches” by the tractor trailer full. 

All of sudden the Koch brothers will become born again (and damn it I thought once was enough!). Why would anyone want to give money to some super PAC when he can give it to the Holy Trump Tower of Babble and get a tax deduction to boot!

Keep in mind that the Johnson Amendment to the US Tax Code affects all 501(c)3 organizations which includes, among other organizations, all schools.  As with Churches, Universities cannot engage in partisan politics (favoring a particular candidate or candidate’s campaign), but like Universities, Churches currently can openly discuss general public issues as they affect their faith.

Trump repeatedly and exclusively addressed this issue of the Johnson Amendment as something he wants to accomplish “for the evangelicals”, he did not mention Churches generally.  He’s right, although he may not know it. 

His motive is support and votes. There’s no question he’s non-religious and has been his whole life.  The Right-Wing Christian Conservative movement is all about money and power. They don’t simply collect funds from their local parish, but their hands are outstretched nationally and internationally. 

They essentially want a Holy War against the Muslim religion as much as the religious nut-jobs in the Middle East and they see Trump as the man to bring it home.

Therein lies why Donald J(erkhead) Trump is the perfect candidate for the Christian Right, even though his history on their favorite social issues (abortion e.g.) and his patent ignorance of Christianity (making Ronald Reagan look like an Apostle) is so contradictory.

We ask American Muslims to speak out against radical jihadists.  Well I’d like to hear moderate American Christian leaders speak out against the efforts of the Republicans and extreme Christian Conservatives to politicize their faith for the same reasons…or are their wallets a bit too close to their Gospels?