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Prayers & Promises

By Kirwan
kirwanstudios@earthlink.net
2-8-5
 
Prayers & Promises
 
The privateers and the puppet masters want to have their promises both ways. Bush is set to announce his Budget for the coming year, and it contains some Draconian cuts into major parts of American society. These are serious times, and tough budgetary decisions are called for; the question now is how much prayer, and which promises are really at issue?
 
In addition to this, Bush & Company are offering a raise to the military while failing to show the real costs that his military fantasies have created. He also promised to restructure the tax code and cut the deficit in half. This might seem like sheer madness, but there is a way he can do everything: believe it or not, there is a way that all of the above can be done. The price however - involves the true status of religion in all of American society.
 
Since his first day in office, back in 2001, Bush has tried to remove health and welfare from government responsibility and has attempted to give that to the churches, along with the tax dollars to pay for it. That has not succeeded yet. This was then followed by other outrageous violations of the provisions of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, especially the part that calls for the clear separation of the church from the state.
 
"Article One, The First Amendment to the US Constitution:
 
Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
 
The First Amendment, as anyone can see has lost most of its powers. Being "At War" we now have government censorship and control by the corporatocracy over free speech. The press should be answering for the lies they mouth from the jaws of this government without even the bare minimum of questions from the Fourth Estate. As for the right of free assembly, tell that to those who have tried for years to confront this president anywhereósee the free speech zones miles away from any cameras. If the petition for the redress of our grievances has anything to do with the results of elections here, then the last two election thefts certainly obviated that final part of this most important Amendment to the US Constitution.
 
Bush has basically rewritten the Constitution by presidential fiat ñ but in doing so he overlooked a major revenue resource. Because the churches and religions of the USA were initially separate from the functions of government (by law) and by way of compensation they have enjoyed a tax-free status. Now however they are heavily involved in all phases of politics, political and partisan speech, and the use of the airwaves for political purposes. Those who have done this are no longer a religious group; they have become an illegal political party. Hence all religious groups and churches must now be taxed, and taxed retroactively back to 2001 ñ when this new status became effective.
 
If this is not done, then the body politic will be supporting a huge and illegal political machine ñ one that obviously has a political agenda, and one that is not paying for its real part in this society. As churches or religions, this aspect of life was exempt from taxation, because they were supposedly apoliticalóin the sense that they were concerned with higher mattersóor at least in matters that lay outside those of the state's interests. Once that boundary was crossed, then all religions became political and now must pay their own way. Their 'books' have be opened, for all the world to see, and they should be assessed and taxed heavily because of a few that now seek to replace the laws of this land with the Bible, a document that has nothing to do with governing a land as diverse as this one is.
 
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/kirwan00039.htm
 
When the status of religion changed, so did their exemption from taxes. The taxes that are owed by the churches, from this legal and necessary correction of the tax burden could more than offset the national debt. Given the many interests of all religions (their land & real estate holdings, their tax sheltered ventures, the art and treasures in the Vatican, their silent partnerships throughout the business world, both here and abroad; as well as all their divergent business interests): All of that which is held and made possible by their exemption from taxesówill have to be taxed; whether or not the particular churches were part of the Evangelistaís world view or not. Given the penalties, the fines and the compounded interest going back the full four years, on top of the assessed taxes - this amount could indeed be staggering. The only way this might be avoided is if the other religions came together and declared the Evangelistas to be a political party and not a religion.
 
Is this all just a part of some secret weapon that Dubya will use to cut the deficit in half, in order to have his way with the current budget as well? After all, the puppet cannot run again so his fair-weather supporters are no longer needed. Technically he and his true masters can just throw them to the taxman with impunity ñ Yes?
 
It's one thing to co-opt these faux religions for political purposes, but it's another thing altogether to allow them to remain tax-exempt in their newfound status. The Evangelista's cannot have it both ways. Either they can be religions, interested in the beliefs and spiritual health of their followers, or they can play Messiah to the wider world, garbed in robes fashioned from the American Flag. They cannot do both and pay for neither.
 
Some of us in the world do not relish having our thoughts dictated to us through the mouth of the government, especially when those thoughts are actually coming from a pulpit that we do not recognize as having any value whatsoever.
 
But the transgression of this extreme right, religious aberration goes far beyond just outlandish behavior. The very tenets of their so-called faith call for them to convert everyone else to their world-view, while simultaneously denying all others the right to choose what they want to believe in. This contravenes the entire point raised by the First Amendment ñ which implies freedom FROM any religion, to those who seek that. In effect the very existence of the Evangelistas is an affront to the laws of our non-sectarian society, and must, by the wording of their own claims be outlawed!
 
When these aggressive imposters try to hide behind "religious freedom" in order to attack those who refuse to crumble before their onslaughts: then something is not right. When the Evangelistas seek the protection of the First Amendment, while they hack their way into the halls of government, and into the bedrooms and boardrooms of the country ñ then it is time to review this bizarre behavior: because when they do this for their petty political aims, they corrupt all religious efforts of all the churches and religions of which they are technically a legal part.
 
 
Free people have the right to be free from any interference by unwanted religious convictions - especially when that comes from eccentric zealots of any stripe.
 
Part of the beauty in this nation, was the idea that each of us was free to think what we choose to think about, so long as we were not plotting the overthrow of the nation ñ then our thoughts could always be our own. Under this "new government" the bible is about to become something that all citizens will be forced to live by: that was never the intent behind this nation. In fact the First Amendment was designed to prevent this very thing from ever becoming part of life in the USA. That is why it was written to grant the people freedom FROM religion, and not as a license to force, any particular religious belief system upon the whole nation.
 
Congress needs to hold public hearings, and send the Treasury Department out to look at how much we have coming from all the churches, for this outrageous theft of our rights, our privileges and the even the very foundation of our government. That sounded good, but everybody knows that congress has been pre-paid, so stuff like this will probably never happen. This whole affair has become about promises to be kept, or promises to be broken: How this goes down in history will determine what kind of nation we really are.
 
Can we all now look forward with pleasure to the Bush PROMISE to cut the deficit in half; (knowing that he always keeps ALL his promises) and 'knowing' that in the bargain we shall rid the nation of this curse of the religious zealots among us? The drawback of course is that someone big will need to lead this charge, and in this sold-out government, that now seems doubtful.
 
kirwan
 
 
 
Comment
From CM Ross
To Jim Kirwan
2-8-5
 
Greetings,
 
( Miss Ross) I am really ever so tired of you in the media trotting out that canard of "separation of church and state," which is NOT in the US Constitution. It is in a letter that Jefferson wrote to a group of concerned Protestants who were concerned that another Protestant sect was going to be named the state religion. Jefferson stated that the church ought to be protected from the state by a wall of separation. WILL YOU PLEASE GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!
 
(kirwan) I really do not care what you think, my facts are straight. The First Amendment was added to the Constitution so that this matter would never be misunderstood - and that is something that you'll just have to learn to live with. The intent was so that all people would have the choice to choose a religion or they could choose to have no religion - that was to be their choice. This was necessary because of the relgious tyranny that had become a way of life in many of the countries from which those early settlers had come from, so when they were trying to create a document that could guide their new republic, they wanted to be sure that as Americans they would be forever free FROM religious tyranny, of any and all types.
 
(Miss Ross) With regard to taxation, I remind you that the income tax is the Second Plank of the Communist Manifesto, and here is what Lavrent Beria, of the Soviet KGB, had to say about it in his lecture on Psychopolitics:
 
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/7006/psychopolitics.html
 
The masses must at last come to believe that only excessive taxation of the rich can deliver them of the "burdensome leisure class" and can thus be brought to accept such a thing as income tax, a Marxist principle smoothly slid into Capitalistic framework in 1909-1913 in the United States. This, even though the basic law of the United States forbade it and even though Communism at that time had been active only a few years in America. Such success as the Income Tax law, had it been followed thoroughly could have brought the United States and not Russia into the world scene as the first Communist nation. But the virility and good sense of the Russian peoples won. It may not be that the United States will become entirely Communist until past the middle of the century, but when it does it will be because of our superior understanding of economics and of psychopolitics.
 
(kirwan) This has nothing to do with ideology, especially not between communism and capitalism - if you understood what we now have better, you would realize that the Corporatocracy is nothing more than communism in shreds of capitalistic clothing and that this transparency is what is now coming under the glare of brighter lights than have heretofore been shed upon this obsenity:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10820193.htm
 
If this makes you uncomfortable then so be it. The current goal of this corrupt pile of horse shit is to restore the egis of the Robber baron days of massive profits without any need to cover the concerns tht most people experience in their everyday lives. That's not even something that can be dignified by calling it an ideology - that's just pure unmitigated greed intermixed with the lust for absolute power.
 
(Miss Ross) The Communist agent skilled in economics has as his task the suborning of tax agencies and their personnel to create the maximum disturbances and chaos and the passing of laws adapted to our purposes and to him we must leave this task. The psychopolitical operator plays a distinctly different role in this drama.
 
I really do not understand your complaint about churches and politics because Lyndon Johnson saw to it that they were effectively gagged in the 1950s when he was a Senator. He authored a bill that withdrew their income tax kickback if they didn't play ball with the government. Which means the leftist churches have run amok and the conservatives are too gutless to stand up for anything meaningful.
 
(kirwan) Left - right - center - they are all the same bunch of pirates. The "churches" for their part were accorded the tax-exempt status because they were supposed to remain within the spiritual realms of their followers - and were not to play an active role in the governance of the state. LBJ did begin this game of fools, but it has only increased. Reagan added his two cents, which was about all he was ever worth, and of course Newt added his obscenities to the fray - and then came Bush with the death blow to freedom FROM dark side of reason.
 
(Miss Ross) And you are probably right in that it does indeed appear that we are too far along now to ever derail this bloodstained path that the Evangelista's have carved out for this nation - however that does not prevent those of us that still care from trying to remove this cancer that religious zealotry has become, from taking over whatever is left of this threadbare country: A place that once upon a time pretended to be a nation both separate from and open to all religions.
 
Finally, Thomas Jefferson would twist in his grave to hear your suggestion that the churches ought to be taxed. He himself wrote in Title 57 of the Code of Virginia on Religious Freedom that it is "sinful and tyrannical" to compel a man to furnish contributions for an opinion with which he does not agree.
 
(kirwan) When any "church" attempts to dictate law and government to an American, you'd be lucky to only be "taxed" and not prosecuted for that offense. You see that last line concerning what is "sinful and tyrannical" applies directly to those who would make their primary mission in life to convert all others on the planet to this screwed up and inhibited but fossilized belief system that those who peddle this snake oil are trying so desperately to sell to the whole world - as to all things Christianity. Especially when the tenets of that neo-con imitation of religion believes in mass murder, in lies of all kinds and reconizes nothing of the sanctity for life, or in the Christian principles regarding coveting the property of others. But perhaps worst of all there is none of the compassion, none of the basic humanity, none of the joy that is part of being alive, in any of that boiler-plate gaarbage that is being dregged up as a model for all to live by.
 
Sincerely,
Miss Ross



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