In addition to churches, there are many strange groups in the USA which apply for tax exemption status. One such group that was recently granted tax exempt status was the “P*ssy Church of Modern Witchcraft”:
The IRS has reportedly recognized the Pussy Church of Modern Witchcraft as a legitimate church.
The Maryland-based group is dedicated exclusively to lesbian feminists.
Peter Reilly, a CPA for over 30 years focusing on taxation, first reported the new designation in a blog post for Forbes.
“The IRS recognized it as a 501(c)(3) organization and went the extra step of recognizing PCMW as a church, the most enviable of all tax statuses exempt not only from income tax but also from the transparency that filing Form 990 creates,” Reilly wrote.
“A church does not have to apply for exempt status, but it is a prudent step particularly for an innovative organization like PCMW. My source indicated that the approval process was reasonably quick and there was no push-back from the IRS,” he added.
The Christian Post reached out to the IRS for confirmation of the designation Wednesday but officials noted that they are prevented by law from discussing individual cases.
A determination letter on the church, publicly available on the IRS’ website dated May 2017, notes that the IRS initially recognized the Pussy Church of Modern Witchcraft as a private foundation that was required to file Form 990-PF disclosure forms or risk losing their tax exempt status if they failed to file for three consecutive years.
“Some organizations that identify themselves as churches may appear on the Automatic Revocation of Exemption List (Auto-Revocation List) because IRS records do not identify them as churches, but rather as some other type of organization that has an annual filing requirement,” explains an IRS advisory.
Since last May however, the Pussy Church of Modern Witchcraft appears to have legally maneuvered their way out of that classification but it is unclear when exactly this happened.
The church did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (source)
This “church” is interesting because is was founded by a lesbian lawyer, Cathy M. Brennan, who is active in the Baltimore area. According to an interview, she is a “radical feminist” who believes that women are an “oppressed class” while men are the “oppressor class” (12:35). She has a clear dislike of the “transgender” side of the LGBT movement, and runs a website to “expose” the T of the LGBT, and she also been known to sue persons who she disagrees with.
The fact that she was able to obtain “tax exempt” status, and that she is a lawyer with a history of LGB activism is interesting in light of the impending situation with churches and the LGBT.
Tax exempt status is a contentious issue with churches because, especially in the case of the USA, the government allows certain “charitable groups,” such as churches, to not pay taxes in exchange for not participating in political life. This is by its very nature the Church abandoning part of her role in society, as since she is the traditional “second estate,” she partakes of both the government and the people while also standing between the two as a buffer. It is impossible for the Church to NOT take part in government.
In spite of the claims of “religious freedom” and “separation of Church and state,” this issue has never been solved with any Church. It is a greater problem for the Catholic Church because the Catholic Church is not a “state church” in the sense of Protestantism, nor has it ever been, where it is subjected wholly to the government. Even in the most favorable times to her, the Church has always occupied a contentious place in society because by her nature, she is not and cannot be reduced to a mouthpiece of the ruling classes. This was also the reason behind the support of the Protestant revolution centuries ago by many noblemen, since they wanted the religious authority to give moral license to their rule and actions. This problem also can happen with smaller Protestant churches in a society where one specific Protestant denomination is recognized by the state.
America has been able to avoid this question by influencing the perception and beliefs of the people in society without changing the actual beliefs of churches. Christians will claim to be “American” and support popular ideas about teachings such as abortion or birth control but will then be active members of churches whose conditions of belief are in direct contradiction to their personal beliefs. It is also achieved by ignoring questions of absolute truth by saying that it does not matter if there is a difference between Catholics and different Protestant groups, or even differences between Protestant sects, since all people share a nebulous belief in Jesus and a “cultural Christianity.”
Both of these approaches have worked at keeping a general control on the disagreement and fighting that would have happened if they were addressed in society. However, what this has done is to replicate the same effect of the Protestant movement but in a different way. In Europe, Protestantism lead to the creation of state churches, which lead then to a “cultural” religion tied to the same Church, which is now passing away into a lack of belief in anything. In America, the promotion of a “cultural Christianity” based on “shared American values” has also lead to the same lack of belief by reducing Christianity to a shared set of cultural values that are able to be changed with the ethos of the times.
The logic in the mind of the common man is simple- if churches are merely social organizations, and since most social and charitable organizations pay taxes, what makes the churches special?
The reality however, is that most churches could not survive without the tax exempt status because the taxes levied upon them by the government would be so onerous it would be impossible to pay for their structures, let alone maintain the ministries they conduct. The result would be a massive confiscation of church properties and wealth by the government using “legal” means as opposed to direct seizure, thus giving the cover of legitimacy in what in an inherently sinister act.
It is true that there has been abuse by members of churches with government programs and tax subsidies. Only a fool or sinister person would dispute this, as there are many stories about it. Even the Protestant revolution used the abuse of church tithes and the selling of indulgences as an excuse for their revolt and formation of nationalist churches. However, far from healing the problems with indulgences, the Protestant revolution made them worse as the “reformers,” including John Calvin himself, gave explicit license to worse forms of financial abuse such as usury, which while practiced “unofficially” by Catholics at the time and was and still is a sin, Protestantism simply deemed it as not sinful.
Our assessment is that the attack on the tax-exempt status of churches will come from the LGBT. Using the “hate” laws in combination with judicial activism, the LGBT has bragged that their intention is to silence the voice of religious groups who criticize them by eventually being able to compel the courts to rule that any groups who engages in anti-LGBT speech is a “hate group” and will be made ineligible for tax exemption.
As we noted in 2016, this will likely happen through “gay marriage”, because homosexual unions are in direct conflict with Christian moral teaching. If this happens, the argument will be that churches need to be stripped of their status for denying people of their “civil rights” in violation of Federal law.
This is one possible means, but what matters is the end and how that end is realized, which is the end of a Christian presence in public life and the relegation of holding the name of Christian to the taboo.
The horrors of the old world have now arrived in the new world, and they are being progressively realized. However, what must not be underestimated in the American ruthlessness at exterminating things deemed to be undesirable while finding ways to legalize that which is deemed desirable.