I was going to write a long post about how keeping the Johnson amendment in place is both good for religious people and for non religious people like me, but I suddenly had a serious case of not-giving-a-fuck.
Let's think deeply about this for a moment. Churches (who are 503c's) but who don't have to adhere to any of the rigid reporting rules of other 503c's are now going to be able to sponsor candidates, etc.
Mind you there were already doing this, but now they can just be utterly blatant about it. They in essence have become ultra-dark superpacs. Frankly, if you're a church with a political agenda, you will be able to take donations for anybody and use them for anything and not a record needs to be taken.
Well, here's the problem with that... That door now swings both ways.
I think we Atheists should band together and form our own "church". We're forced to use the term "church" because it's written into the tax code, and I think we should name it "The church of the new awakening".
At last check, we "none's" are the largest religious group in this country by far, and growing!
Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Tim Cook. All Atheists with billions if not trillions of dollars (int BG's case) at their disposal. Moreover, all people who have expressed great disdain in the direction of this country.
But beyond that, think of millions upon millions of Atheists / Nones / "Spiritualists" and people of faith who are looking at the current situation in government with horror and disdain. Who are more than willing to put their money where their mouths in an attempt to keep the lunatics who've grabbed the wheel from driving us all off a cliff.
Simply put our combined money and brains would be unstoppable. We could create a dark superpac so insanely large the the religious right would have a fit. They'd yell from the rafters, but we'd be the first to point out this was of their own doing. We'd give them two choices. Reinstate and actually enforce the Johnson amendment (or an even stricter version therein) or live with the consequences.
If they choose to live with the consequences, we'll then take that money and brains and go election by election demolishing the anti-science, religious ideologues infesting congress.
If they reinstate the Johnson amendment, we'll then take that money and brains and go election by election demolishing the anti-science, religious ideologues infesting congress. More so, we'll take those churches who politic from the pulpit to task and demand they be taxed.
Repealing the Johnson amendment is a Pandora's box for the religious right.
