Mega Church money video

Pavel Mosko

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This video has a special interest to me since not only have I lived in Charlotte area the last few years, but I worked at the TV station where it was produced for 4 or so years (after the fact).

Anyway it raises some interesting issues. It is a compilation of a weekly series that covered questionable practices of churches of the local Charlotte area in 2014. For folks that don't want spend the full 45 minutes, I would suggest just watching the first case that raises some issues regarding how some mega churches seem to take advantage of the laws that were originally put in place to protect your average neighborhood church.


 

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I watched the whole video.

I'm not OK with the bad examples listed in it. They're exploiting good principles - privacy, and ownership. I do not believe in throwing those principles away to go after them.

The video also stated that because of the parsonage allowance, everyone's taxes are higher. Getting rid of that however, would essentially mean taxing the churchgoers more, since the pastor's housing is paid for by the church, and the church is financed by the giving of the churchgoers. The cost is passed right on down to the congregation. Such would be the case with any new taxes on the church or the clergy.

If there were to be a federal cap on the tax break, I'm a bit wary of that - it's way more expensive to live in New York City or San Francisco than it is to live in a small Midwestern town. Any cap would need to be high enough to still allow average pastors in New York City, San Francisco, and other such places to live decently.
 
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Pavel Mosko

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Yes I moved away from Silicon Valley 5 years ago because of the cost of living so I'm well aware of those kind of issues.

Personally I wouldn't want taxing of churches etc. but I could see something like a cap on the parsonage allowance because being a preacher etc. should not be a license to live large etc. and a number of big time ministers can give Christianity a bad name with those in the World where big time ministers are living like billionaires.
 
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