Judaism, Christianity and Islam all enjoy tax exempt status as religions. In spite of not paying taxes, they benefit from services like police and fire protection, as well as public utilities, etc., all of which are paid for by people and organizations that do pay taxes.
With the advent of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing shutdowns, the US federal government created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The PPP is intended to help small businesses from going under during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In spite of not paying taxes, and in spite of the prohibition in the US Constitution of mixing government and religion, the "revealed" religions have so far received an estimated $10 BILLION in US tax-payer dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program. The Roman Catholic Church received an estimated $3.5 billion. More than 400 Christian evangelical churches received more than $1 million each. Jewish and Islamic "revealed" religions also received millions of US tax-payer dollars through PPP.
At least one Christian clergyman/con-man, Marcus Lamb of Daystar Television, used PPP tax dollars to buy a jet plane. He received $3.9 million and two-weeks after that he bought the jet. After a reporter called him out on it, the money was returned, along with a denial that the PPP money was used to purchase the jet plane. (The Christian preacher with the most expensive jet plane is Joel Osteen who owns an $86 million dollar Airbus A319. Pictured above is Osteen and his wife in their jet plane. Osteen is the Christian clergyman/con-man who, when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017, did not allow local people to take refuge in his megachurch until the media reported on it.)
The fact that the "revealed" religions are willing to take from what they have not contributed to says a lot about them. Objectively looking at the "holy" books of the various "revealed" religions, it is evident that the primary reason people join and support them is because of the fear, selfish and greed based false promises they make to people. For example, Christianity promises that if a person becomes a Christian, they will avoid having God burning them in Hell for eternity and instead they will enjoy eternal existence in Heaven. Add to this regarding the hereafter, promises from Christianity to people who give and contribute financially to Christianity in the here-and-now. The Christian clergy like to focus on verses like Luke 6:38 which says that Jesus said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." With enough Christians believing Bible verses like this, the clergy will keep their jet planes flying well into the future! (For a more detailed examination of selfishness being used to promote Christianity and all of the Abrahamic "revealed" religions, and their complete lack of altruism, read our Deism eBooklet Greed and "Revealed" Religions.)
The best way to stop this injustice is to use simple honesty and our innate God-given reason. Too many people who are currently under the influence of a "revealed" religion are not aware of the "bad parts" of their religion. I know when I was a Christian, I was was not aware of them. I had to read Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason in order to learn about them.
In The Age of Reason, The Complete Edition, Thomas Paine makes this profoundly important observation:
"Nonsense ought to be treated as nonsense, wherever it be found; and had this been done in the rational manner it ought to be done, instead of intimating and mincing the matter, as has been too much the case, the nonsense and false doctrine of the Bible, with all the aid that priestcraft can give, could never have stood their ground against the divine reason that God has given to man."
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