[kcmastrpc]

The vast majority of churches are net positives for their communities, this applies to _all_ churches. Are you saying the local Islamic centre, or protestant church should suffer because of the corruption in the Catholic organization?

[ones_and_zeros]

May be just a personal opinion but I don't consider paying taxes on vast amounts of wealth or the land you own in support of a community to be suffering.

[harimau777]

Would requirement to pay these taxes also apply to secular non-profits?

[maxxxxx]

No. What I am saying is that the Catholic Church should have been shut down or forced to clean up their act. And other churches who do bad stuff should be treated like secular organizations who do bad stuff. Right now if you call yourself a “church” you can get away with things other organizations can’t.

[coldtea]

>Right now if you call yourself a “church” you can get away with things other organizations can’t.

Says who? Do you mean priests accused abusing people wont be taken to court/jail because they are priests? Because that happens all the time (just like with any other profession doing that).

Whether the Church advertises it or not, or tries to keep it from publicity, is something most entities would do. Companies don't advertise their members bad behavior either.

[kcmastrpc]

Tell that to the branch davidians.

[maxxxxx]

What’s your point other than being defensive?

[kcmastrpc]

My point is that you're wrong. Calling yourself a church doesn't make you immune to state/federal laws. Tax laws included.

[NickBusey]

Citation needed.

[kcmastrpc]

https://www.barna.com/research/do-churches-contribute-to-the... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4414933/ https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.publh...

[NickBusey]

The first link is the results of a survey.

The second and third links make the argument that churches increase the health of the people who participate in it.

Neither says that churches are 'net positives' for a community. A church can easily make it's members healthier, while also hurting the larger community as a whole by occupying very valuable real estate while contributing nothing back to it's non-members.

[kcmastrpc]

Though I suspect I could throw hundreds of articles/research papers/studies at you and you'd still balk and say they're slanted, unrepresentative, etc.

[maxxxxx]

What for?