A Times Editorial
St. Petersburg Times, Clearwater, FL
Published November 12, 2007
Joyce Meyer calls herself a woman of God, and maybe she is, but Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, wants to know how Meyer can justify spending $23,000 in tax-exempt religious contributions for a marble-topped commode. Meyer's church, Joyce Meyer Ministries in Missouri, is one of six Christian ministries Grassley is investigating for possible abuses of their tax-exempt status. Another of Grassley's targets is Without Walls International Church, a controversial megachurch based in Tampa.
Politicians should be careful when delving into religious matters, but Grassley has raised some legitimate issues about enforcement of tax laws. While religious institutions have constitutional protection against certain taxation, they are also expected not to abuse their special status. In fact, while Grassley is looking into such matters, he should add the Church of Scientology to the list.
Scientology's shameful past includes a 25-year legal and psychological campaign against the IRS to be recognized as a tax-exempt religion. Scientology tactics included a criminal conspiracy in the 1970s to bug IRS offices, which led to 11 convictions of church members including founder L. Ron Hubbard's wife. Scientology filed dozens of lawsuits against the IRS, hired private investigators to dig up dirt on IRS employees and financed other IRS critics.
In an unprecedented concession in 1993, the IRS dropped its long-held position that Scientology operations where commercial, and granted the organization tax-exempt status as a religion. Mysteriously, that decision came after then IRS Commissioner Fred T. Goldberg Jr. held an impromptu private meeting with top Scientologist David Miscavige. Goldberg and the IRS still refuse to discuss their decision or release details of the settlement even though there is no legal obligation for them to remain silent. Perhaps Grassley could shed some light on what happened in that private meeting.
While federal law gives great leeway to recognized religions to collect money without paying taxes, there are some clear limitations. A religion's income and assets cannot be used to benefit church insiders beyond their normal compensation, and must be used for charitable, educational or religious purposes rather than to enrich individuals.
So when Benny Hinn, leader of World Healing Center Church in Texas, gives himself a salary of more than $500,000 a year, buys a $10-million seaside mansion and vacations at church expense in jet-setter hot spots, Grassley has a right to ask a few questions. MinistryWatch.com, an independent religious watchdog group, reported those financial excesses (and more) by Hinn, whose church got a failing grade for financial transparency. Two other ministries on Grassley's list also received an F from MinistryWatch.com: Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Texas and Creflo Dollar Ministries in Georgia.
The issue is not only one of legality but also fairness. Every tax dollar a ministry improperly avoids paying is a dollar added to everyone else's tax bill. And the amounts are huge. In the four years leading up to its victory 1993 over the IRS, Scientology reported revenues of $1.1-billion, which have undoubtedly grown since then.
There is no reason to believe that Grassley, an independent-minded conservative, will carry his investigation too far or question legitimate tax-exemptions of the many religious organizations that use their money for charitable work. In fact, Congress could boost the credibility of religious giving by exposing those who abuse people's generosity for personal gain. http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19868/prosperity-gospel-2
Read the comments to the original piece. You'll see how quickly James and Terrio, Scientology's posting minions, were the first comments in here and quite a few other articles critical of Scientology. That's because they were tipped off in advance. Scientology has planted members on the staff of The St Petersburg Times, as they have with other organizations and government agencies. It's all part of Hubbard's plan to take over the world..... yet the media, which Scientology hates, continues to chew them up and spit them out. Thank God for that.
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/12/Opinion/A_church_accounting.shtml
But, there is much more to the story of how Scientology gained it's tax exempt religious organization status. It was, once again, a topic of discussion over at usenet group alt.religon.scientology recently:
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Out_Of_The_Dark wrote:
I was skimming the blogs and came across this blog article about a recent St Petersburg Times Editorial piece where the editor suggests that Iowa Sen Grassley add Scientology to the list of churches to audit...... editorial
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19868/prosperity-gospel-2
To make sure it was a valid article, I went to the SPTimes site and looked in the archive for the Nov 12 piece. Sure enough, it was there, along with some very good comments only the critics of scientology will appreciate, lol! Thank you St Petersburg Times!!
Here's a 'Fair Use Exerpt' of the original archived text found here:
http://tinyurl.com/2y5sd8
--------------
From: "Android Cat"
Android Cat wrote:
"The I.R.S. has refused to say whether Mr. Goldberg had an unscheduled meeting with Mr. Miscavige. Mr. Goldberg, who left the agency in 1992, has declined to comment."
WTF?
I think I'm missing a tag on an article that wonders if the *current* (1993)
commisioner signed off on it. Look under:
http://home.primus.ca/~ronsharp/FrontCiteTW.html#IRS
You betcha I've spent time tagging IRS-related articles!
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/12/Opinion/A_church_accounting.shtml *foomp* into the FrontCite pipeline.
("In an unprecedented concession in 1993, the IRS dropped its long- held position that Scientology operations were commercial, and granted the organization tax-exempt status as a religion. Mysteriously, that decision came after then-IRS commissioner Fred T. Goldberg Jr. held an impromptu private meeting with top Scientologist David Miscavige. Goldberg and the IRS still refuse to discuss their decision or release details of the settlement, even though there is no legal obligation for them to remain silent. Perhaps Grassley could shed some light on what happened in that private meeting.")
The weirdness is that Fred *wasn't* the IRS commisioner in 1993. It seems to be the last thing he signed-off on as he headed for the door after resigning and there was confusion about who authorized it at the time. There's a few retroactive questions that Fred should be answering.
-- Ron of that ilk.
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
From: "Android Cat"
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:42:51 -0500
Local: Thurs, Nov 15 2007 1:42 am
Subject: Re: SPTimes Editorial Nov 12, 2007 'A CHURCH ACCOUNTING' "......while Grassley is looking into such matters, he should add the Church of Scientology to the list."
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/12/Opinion/A_church_accounting.shtml *foomp* into the FrontCite pipeline.
("In an unprecedented concession in 1993, the IRS dropped its long- held position that Scientology operations were commercial, and granted the organization tax-exempt status as a religion. Mysteriously, that decision came after then-IRS commissioner Fred T. Goldberg Jr. held an impromptu private meeting with top Scientologist David Miscavige. Goldberg and the IRS still refuse to discuss their decision or release
> details of the settlement, even though there is no legal obligation for them to remain silent. Perhaps Grassley could shed some light on what happened in that private meeting." )
The weirdness is that Fred *wasn't* the IRS commisioner in 1993. It seems
to be the last thing he signed-off on as he headed for the door after
resigning and there was confusion about who authorized it at the time.
There's a few retroactive questions that Fred should be answering.
Ron of that ilk.
-------
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
From: "Android Cat"
Here it is:
Scientologists Granted Tax Exemption by the U.S.
By STEPHEN LABATON,
Published: October 14, 1993
Note that Fred Goldberg isn't even mentioned in the entire article (which is
why it doesn't have a tag for Fred.)
==
Mr. Keith said the group was notified of the decision on Oct. 1 and that it
followed a two-year review of financial statements and other information
provided by the organizations about their structure and purposes. He would
not say whether the final decision had been made by the new Commissioner of
the Internal Revenue Service, Margaret M. Richardson, who would normally
have to approve any large settlement.
==
Frank Keith is still there at the end of 1997 when the agreement is leaked.
--------
Out_Of_The_Dark Nov 17, 3:06 pm
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
From: Out_Of_The_Dark
Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2007 12:06:20 -0800 (PST)
Local: Sat, Nov 17 2007 3:06 pm
Subject: Re: SPTimes Editorial Nov 12, 2007 'A CHURCH ACCOUNTING' "......whileGrassley is looking into such matters, he should add the Church of Scientologyto the list."
Yes, the SpTimes editor named Fred Goldberg instead of Margaret M. Richardson on this point but in all reality, it was probably Goldberg who was the one who signed off on the initial clearence of the agreement, most likely after being intimidated and harrassed and fairgamed. If I were Fred and I was in that situation,m I would turn
the matter over for completion to my replacement, who probably knew little to nothing accept that Fred Goldberg did all the prep work with getting the application back to the Tax Exempt unit and just giving the giving the formal acceptance to Richardson for final signatory.
That takes attention off Goldberg, shuffles the case into the package of work a new director is given and the issue gets lost in transition. I am certain this was the intent.
I cannot imagine what kind of dirt they found on Fred Goldberg but whatever it was, it swiftly changed the direction of the IRS in denying Scientology it's tax exempt status, in spite of Hernandez losing the supreme court ruling in Hernandez v IRS on deductability of donations. That made the IRS more powerful than the United States
Supreme Court. Granting Scientology 501(c)3 tax exempt status was a hugh error in judgement which in time will come back to haunt the IRS. That time may be not. I sure hope so.
Thanks for keeping such a great resource.
http://home.primus.ca/~ronsharp/FrontCiteTW.html
IRS: Scientology is tax-exempt religion
October 13, 1993
Wayne Garcia, St. Petersburg Times:
The Internal Revenue Service says the Church of Scientology and its myriad entities don't have to pay federal income taxes, ending a 40- year battle with the controversial church over its purpose and methods of dealing with opponents, which included burglary and intimidation." [..]
In the past week, the Internal Revenue Service issued 30 "determination letters" that exempted 153 Scientology churches, missions and corporations from paying federal corporate income taxes, said Frank Keith, an IRS spokesman.
"I have invested a whole number of years in this and I can say I'm disappointed if this is the final ruling," Mayor Rita Garvey said.
"It's a profit-making organization preying on the needs of people looking for help."
"I think it's a license to steal," said Gabe Cazares, a former Clearwater mayor who was a target of church harassment."
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/51775819.html?dids=51775819:51775819&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT
Rest in peace, Gabe Cazares
Mary McConnell
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