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My interpretation is the letter of the law! You're reading it how you want to read it, not reading what it literally says. You probably think it took more than seven 24 hour days for God to create the universe too.

The constitution was designed to be flexible since any rigid system is bound to stunt growth and breed unfairness under certain conditions.

That said I'm not sure if it's unconstitutional to tax religions, though i understand why they do not. Such power for taxing people because they congregate under a like belief is probably unconstitutional. That's ridiculous and leaves so much room for abuse as a means of deciding what's acceptable and what's not. If a religion is for profit, they're running a business, then I'd contend you can tax that portion. But the portion where people are pooling money to use towards the spreading of their beleifs, or the execution of their beliefs in a not-for-profit manner. In this case I don't think that should be taxed.


Onto the kid issue. Ultimately while improving the diet is one thing, the largest thing we can do for kids at school is to encourage physical activity. Make the schools have all the kids run a mile everyday, that'll help with the problem. Have them keep track of each individual's time, the school can offer some benefit as you improve your time. That's how they really could impact this issue.

Secondly they could teach through math classes concepts of calorie in take and expenditure, and in chemistry and biology classses the proccess that goes on as you eat, how you form fat, and explicitly target fast foods such as McDonald's in hopes of encouraging the kids to eat healthy. Explain the connection between proper dieting and muscle building, bone strength, overall growth and development... How eating right can make you run faster, and be stronger. This would appeal to both boys and girls. Send literature home, that hopefully the parents can/will read as well.

Maybe in the PTA meetings or the Parent teacher conferences they can go over some of the content with the parents on what the school is teaching.

Then the rest is up to the parents, and even if they don't buy food so their kids can have a healthy meal, if you get them to run a mile 5 times a week, they're going to lose weight. That's what they do for Gym class, those who get done earlier get to run another mile.. j/k... get to play basketball.

We all know that those kids are actually just little people, the one in the hat is 45, and his brother is even older at 67.

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But each religion will have to be taxed differently.

Therein lies one issue for huge abuse to be had, and secondly you really think we should tax people for organizing together under like belief? That fundamentally is what a religion is. I think that hinders free expression, and also opens the door for abuse. If the religion has a for profit component then I would agree you can tax that as you would a business.

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There is nothing that says we can't tax churches or religious organizations. I'm not saying we should, but you can't say it's unconstitutional to do so.

I personally don't care for the constitution much, for me it's a just a guide given to us by the best judgement of those in the past. That's how i view it. They could be wrong they could be right. I could see the line where it says it won't prevent the free practice of religion that taxing them would be in violation of that.

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WHY? You keep saying this, but it makes no sense. If different religions are taxed differently, there would be only ONE basis for this decision: how much money they make. If the taxes applied are progressive taxes and not a flat tax, the rate changes based on what they're bringing in as "profit" and has NOTHING to do with what the religion believes.

Either way, whether all religions are taxed under a uniform system or not, that taxing them is dangerous and deadly to our country. That it's a abuse of people's expression. I just don't even think the tax makes sense. It's arguably unconstitutional, if you view it as hindering, which i think it is. As long as it's not for profit activities, i see no reason to tax, and I think that'd be the more legitimate issue to discuss first, if we should tax, before discussing how taxes should be done.

I think you're right there are people abusing it, and manipulating people probably even to beliefs they don't actually believe, like all those Christian t.v. evangelicals. My issue comes in the potential for abuse by the government, if the government wants to stop certain new religions from coming up this would open that possibiilty. Secondly, the notion of taxing people for congregating together under like belief. I disagree with. I think they should be able to use their resources untaxed. Maybe a structural evaluation to make sure they actually are non-for profit is in order. The cases you are citing, I wish there was someway to shut them down. It sickens me.

In general, in the purest spirit and form that a religion ought take and operate under, it should not be taxed. If we have a way to establish that structure is being maintained by the religious group that shouldn't be taxed.


One issue I have is getting tax ride-offs for donating to Churces, I don't like that.

I'll add one more thing that might be able to address your issue. If anyone is taking the donations of their church for personal use, regardless why, that should be taxed as taxable income.

If they live off the donations they make from the church and say they keep 40k for themselves annually and the rest goes back into the congregation, i think that 40k should be taxed, as an income, because it is exactly that... it's no different than getting paid at a job. But the money pooled together to express their beliefs and causes should not be taxed.