Subsidizing Discriminatory Religious Schools

[stromboli]

http://gaywithoutgod.com/2015/02/08/subsidizing-discrimination-christian-schools-and-their-tax-exempt-status/

This week 17 year old Austin Wallis was forced to either deny he’s gay or find a new high school. In his viral YouTube video, Wallis explains that his Lutheran high school forced him to leave because he was gay. They gave the popular YouTube blogger a choice: he could either go back into the closet by removing all evidence he’s gay from social media or he would be expelled. So he left.

This story, as tragic as it is, raises the question: why are we giving tax breaks to discriminatory Christian schools?

Lutheran High North (LHN) is run by Lutheran Education Association of Houston (LEAH) which is filed as a 501(c)(3). That means the school is able to function as a non-profit with all the tax shelters that come with it while discriminating against its students in whatever way it sees fit on religious grounds.

In the U.S. it’s the status quo for Christian schools to be tax-exempt. They either fall under the umbrella of a host church which is tax-exempt under federal law, or they apply for their own tax exempt status as an independent religious entity.

It seems absurd that a tax-exempt school would able to enforce moral clauses that, in the case of LHN, declare that the school “reserves the right, within its sole discretion, to refuse admission of an applicant and/or to discontinue enrollment of a current student participating in, promoting, supporting or condoning: pornography, sexual immorality, homosexual activity or bisexual activity; or displaying an inability or resistance to support the qualities and characteristics required of a Biblically based and Christ-like lifestyle.”

And it seems illegal. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, and national origin. By requiring its students to identify with a particular brand of Christianity (see the moral clause above) or to otherwise face expulsion, the school would appear to be breaking the “religion” clause of the federal anti-discrimination laws.

There are similarities here to the Ken Ham Ark Encounter story. In case you haven’t been following, Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis is trying to build a Noah’s Ark theme park in Kentucky. Originally, the for-profit venture was depending on $18,000,000 of Kentucky tax payer money as part of that State’s tourism tax incentives. Then it was discovered that the Ark Encounter was taking part in discriminatory hiring practices in that they refused to hire applicants who are gay or non-Christian. As a result they lost their anticipated tourism tax incentives and all was right in the world.

Similar to the Ark Encounter scenario, if a Christian school is to require a student to adhere to a particular brand of Christianity, the school should be stripped of its tax-exempt status. Their thoughts on morality are their business, but when they receive tax breaks while forcing those religious views on others, it becomes our business. It should be obvious that no tax paying citizen should be made to subsidize discrimination and homophobia by bearing the burden of tax-exemptions awarded to these religious, anti-LGBT institutions.

Seems pretty clear to me. This is the kind of uneven- and by all accounts illegal- activity allowed in this country for religious institutions. Religious schools are even more egregious, because they are inserting teaching into education which run counter to science and even common sense. The best thing that could happen is stripping these institutions of special tax status and making them conform to the same laws as everyone else.

[Green Bottle]

WoW Stromboli, just when you think uv heard it all, u realise u havent.

There's so much i like about ur country but... thank f i dont live there...

[SGOS]

Tax breaks for churches, just like other laws here and there, exist because they are not challenged.  Even when they are discriminatory, or violate modern day constitutional interpretations, they exist because they are so traditional that not enough people view them as discriminatory or unconstitutional.  "It's only right for churches that discriminate (for moral reasons) not to pay taxes," seems rather similar in thinking to "It's only right to own black people as slaves."  People don't think about it.  It's right because we've always done it.

[SGOS]

Jesus was not reported to say, "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's unless you are a religion."  I'm pretty sure he didn't mean to say that.

[stromboli]

Jesus was not reported to say, "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's unless you are a religion."  I'm pretty sure he didn't mean to say that.

Very good point. Needs to be brought up every time the discussion starts.

[dtq123]

Just an idea, what if they just start actually using the money they get to help people?

Would everyone be OK with that?

[GrinningYMIR]

Just an idea, what if they just start actually using the money they get to help people?

Would everyone be OK with that?

Church's only help people wirh an alterior motive in mind. They're the least benevolent institution that masquerades as the most benevolent

[dtq123]

Church's only help people with an alterior motive in mind. They're the least benevolent institution that masquerades as the most benevolent

They TRY to look nice, which means that they actually have to do good stuff. That's good enough for me, at least for now. They help many people by placing a placebo effect, and many people in the world use religion as an excuse to be good (A bit of a biased statement from my parents saying that, so please show my anyone who doesn't do this.) Organisations promote "peace", and as slow and at a costly expense it "DOES" work. Organisations also give food out to people and give people place to "belong". There are not many other institutions readily available for atheists to join and still feel like they have special meaning in the world.

There just aren't enough people who don't support these operations for us to shut it down however costly it may be the maintain them. We should build our institutions alongside them in order to "join their ranks" and start promoting critical thinking along side social groups.

[stromboli]

The Haiti earthquake, with all the religious "relief" agencies like Scientologists and Mormons showing up in bright colored T-shirts with their church name on the front. Baptists and everyone else included. My son, when a reservist, went down for Katrina after the hurricane and worked with the Red Cross. Didn't have much good to say about a lot of the other voluntary groups that were church related. All about PR and not much to do with actually helping.

[dtq123]

The Haiti earthquake, with all the religious "relief" agencies like Scientologists and Mormons showing up in bright colored T-shirts with their church name on the front. Baptists and everyone else included. My son, when a reservist, went down for Katrina after the hurricane and worked with the Red Cross. Didn't have much good to say about a lot of the other voluntary groups that were church related. All about PR and not much to do with actually helping.

PR helps grab attention, which generates relief from other sources.
Without PR from Christians, it would have taken (Ever so slightly) longer for relief to come to Haiti.
Christians have a big impact, and we should try to exploit that by increasing our PR with them.
Christians are like a nun, full of lies yet worth using.

[stromboli]

There wasn't much question about PR. It was pretty hard not to know it happened. The sad thing is that Haiti, today, is a long way from recovering from the earthquake because the country's infrastructure was so fragmented to begin with and hasn't improved. And as is so often the case, millions of dollars of relief money wound up in people's pockets, and was not used to help the poor.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/30/haiti-earthquake-five-year-anniversary/20767723/

[kilodelta]

I heard they brought a lot of bibles down to help the earthquake victims... Perhaps for a source of heat during cold nights without shelter?