In 2011 in Australia the prime minister and the treasurer are telling the population that the May 2011 budget is going to be a tough one!
Gillard and the federal opposition's Tony Abbott are calling for those unfortunate people who receive benefits because of unemployment, disability, old age and various other reasons, to look to their laurels and are being told "we are going to be tough on you because you must get jobs and lose your benefits.
Now, as ever in Australian society, it is those who are most disadvantaged and struggling to put a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs who are told to suffer more.
Those who are rich will be looked after and will be able to get richer at the expense of the poor who will get poorer. By these means the budget will be able to keep Australia afloat.
However, the major organisations which would make Australia prosperous for years to come by being taxed,continue to be tax exempt because they have rich and powerful lobbies. These are the religious institutions in Australia who continue to be treated as gods and royalty because our atheist prime minister has suddenly found god in her middle years - she has had a "Damascus" moment.
In 1994 a group in the USA was pushing for that country's government to consider taxing religious organisations who had been tax-exempt in that country.
Guess what??!! Here we are 17 years later and what has changed?
But the world is changing. There is turmoil in the middle east and the rich countries are literally shitting themselves because it has all come as a surprise and they don't know how to handle it all. Added to which the USA is so bankrupt because of its wars, its bankers and its support for Israel that they too are looking for cuts to budgets to make the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.
The item below therefore makes very interesting reading!
2 February 2009
I came across this 1994 press release while researching further atheist sites relating to gay, lesbian, transgender and HIV/AIDS communities (GLTH), and as I am trying to list as many atheist organisations as possible, this is next on the list!:
PRESS RELEASE AMERICAN GAY AND LESBIAN ATHEISTS, INC.
P O Box 66711 Houston,
PRESS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE *****************************************************************
AMERICAN GAY AND LESBIAN ATHEISTS, INC.
P O Box 66711
Houston, TX 77266-6711
Dial-A-Gay-Atheist: 713-880-4242
AGLA CALLS UPON IRS TO MONITOR CHURCHES FOR POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT
For Immediate Release
Saturday, October 29, 1994
Contact: Don Sanders, National Director
Houston, TX -- As the political season reaches "high gear," the national office of American Gay and Lesbian Atheist is busily watching the degree to which churches and religious organizations in the Houston area are involving themselves in partisan politics. American Gay Atheists, Inc. is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) educational foundation which does not violate the tenets of the IRS codes which prohibit direct involvement in partisan politics by non-profit groups.
American Gay and Lesbian Atheists (AGLA) has been instrumental in having the Dallas office of the Internal Revenue Service maintain an open file (File 4940 Dal) on Houston area churches and religious groups which involve themselves in the political process, such as endorsing candidates for public office. During the 1993 elections, AGLA documented numerous cases of direct political involvement by Houston churches, particularly in the races of Sheila Jackson Lee, who was backed heavily by numerous Black ministerial alliances. In some cases, the political involvement of churches was so blatant that some churches placed campaign signs on their properties.
"Such political involvement by churches is harmful to basic freedoms and civil rights of many, particularly gays and lesbians," says Don Sanders, national director. "The strongest opposition to equality of rights for gays and lesbians comes from the churches and the Christian scriptures. Many ministers bastardize the non-profit status accorded them under the rules of the Internal Revenue Service by directly instructing their congregations for whom to vote and how to vote on key issues, such as abortion rights, women's rights, and rights for gays and lesbians." Sanders points out that efforts to stop churches from influencing politics have proven ineffective. "However," Sanders says, "if the politically-meddling churches suddenly were threatened with loss of their privileged tax status accorded them under the directives of the Internal Revenue Service, much direct partisan political involvement on the part of churches would cease."
During this political season, AGLA is carefully monitoring the antics of the so-called Religious Right and the support of their candidates by churches. "If the churches will not abide by the law which prohibits them from endorsing candidates, instructing their congregants for whom to vote, or funding political campaigns, we hope that our efforts to encourage the IRS to look into these matters by giving them documentation on this obvious abuse and illegal activity will help prove to the churches, once and for all, they should get out of the political game, or lose their tax exemption," says Sanders.
For further comments or questions, contact Don Sanders.
American Gay and Lesbian Atheists promotes Thomas Jefferson's constitutional premise of separation between state and church, and works to protect and promote the civil and human rights of persons who are Atheists and gay.
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http://www.atheists.org
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