[ok_dad]

I personally wouldn't mind eliminating every religious organization, since religion is not any specific organization, but rather a personal belief system and a way to live your own life. Large groups of people (the execs that run the orgs) deriving income and wealth from that personal experience is demented. Christians and others shouldn't be afraid of their religion being destroyed, just the corrupt organizations that prey on their personal beliefs in order to further their own agendas.

[aliasxneo]

I agree, but I also think Christians have precedence to be afraid of government persecution. So, it's a fine line that our forefathers tried to draw.

[ok_dad]

Christian and many other individuals have been persecuted in the past, but it isn't persecuting an organization by punishing them for breaking the law or acting in contravention to it unless that law is specifically targeted towards them. In this case, it seems there was a "slap on the wrist" punishment, but no true accountability for their actions.

It is pointless to even argue for the straw-man that "Christians in America need to fear persecution" since that is not the case, even the tiniest bit, in today's America.

[aliasxneo]

It's the same principle applied to any entity fighting for freedom. I never posited that Christians in America are under imminent threat of being persecuted by the government. I'm just reinforcing that Christians should scrutinize Church/state interactions and be leery of overreach (on either side for that matter). I should clarify that when I say 'government' I mean all forms of it, just not in America.

In this case, I would agree the punishment wasn't severe enough.

[dbrueck]

I'm not the OP, but the slap on the wrist punishment seems appropriate for the violation. See VLM's comment about the form in question, for example, but the summary of events is basically:

SEC: Hey, the way you're filing those forms looks sneaky, don't do that.

church: k