Faith must be defended! It is the highest expression of Free Will. It is the highest form of expression of Freedom and Liberty. At all costs, I will die defending everyone’s right to have Faith without asking permission, or being forced to pay for it!
And along with this comes the highest form of violence, which was the Chattel Enslavement of Africans (Kunyowu—translates, “Death is Better”) in the Americas by European nations. There, slaves were denied their very faiths, and the Bible rewritten and reforged by Christian European Councils was impressed upon Africans against their will. That was, and still represents the height of all barbarism: that European Barbarism.
A grandchild of this animalism, this violence, is a new idea brewing in some colonial nations like Ghana, where the British caused so much havoc during their terrorist occupation of the territory, that some leaders of Ghana—stepchildren of British Barbarism—are contemplating, or rather toying with the idea that today’s Churches in Ghana must be taxed.
What on Earth?
There are two cardinal mistakes a tax on Churches commits without error: (1) Beyond the fundamental fact that it breaches the right of (wo)men to have faith, or that it bars people from the free expression of the will without being forced to pay for it, it also (2) Enforces and Entrenches the continued colonial subjugation of African people’s faith through law enforcement and government extortion.
Just because one doesn’t believe in God, or that one thinks Churches are like businesses doesn’t mean that the idea of complete taxation is meaningful. What is the point of taxes? Is it a debt that a Church and its members must repay? Far from it.
So what has taxes got to do with a group of people who gather regularly (in a Church)? When did gathering in one place start becoming a requirement for a compulsory demand to contribute to government revenue? How is the demand to increase government revenue even justifiable in any sense?
My dear friends, if you don’t like that the leader of some gathering has grown a longer pot-belly than yours, you have two choices: (1) Ignore the pastor and (2) Confront the pastor in the middle of the night. (By nature of his longer pot-belly he will be unable to resist your confrontation). None of which has anything to do with collecting taxes.
Taxes on natives I have always believed are monstrous. They are evil. They are bad. But if the government must collect some money to keep the nation running, then a small amount can be collected from all of us, as a result of the majority decision of the coalition of the willing.
Bar that, it is sheer thievery. It is looting, and it is where Government borrowing is also built, coined and manufactured, and delivered to the people in debt-ridden colonial fashion. Taxing, with its concomitant government borrowing, is looting at the highest order: It is looting not only from our generation (taxing) but also from future generations (borrowing). It should never be allowed in any country! Taxing faith is a direct brainchild of European barbarism (Kunyowu).
Sometimes I don’t quite get the argument for taxing Churches. Is it to help the Church-goers? Or is it to line the rich pockets of Government ministers? Whatever one believes about Churches taking advantage of the poor, one of these is not the answer. Taxing a Church cannot possibly be in the interest of a member of the Church. Especially, it cannot be in the interest of the poor who attends the Church.
Take tithing for instance. If the argument is that the Church collects tithes from its members, and that such monies must be considered revenue to the Church, it is correct but wrong to suggest that such tithes must be taxed. Why? First, the tithe is coming from income to the member, which has already been taxed by the government. Second, the tithe is a gift to the Church. (No one is forced, no matter the extent of the religious coercion, to pay tithes. That is, no one is forced to gift.)
Which brings me to the point: to tax the Church is double taxing. Such monies flowing into the group bank account, or the personal bank account of the pastor (whichever you believe), has already been taxed. It cannot be taxed again!
It is a bit like suggesting that every time I go to the village to gift a goat and chicken to my father for Christmas, it should be taxed. Does that make any sense? There are people who send money to their parents in Ghana from the US, England, Egypt, etc. every month. Should that too be taxed? Those are gifts abi?
The suggestion of complete taxation as a solution to dwindling government revenue is not the answer to helping it. It is as if one wishes to suggest that the only answer to making a farm profitable is to enslave your own family members and starve them to death. That is nonsense, and it is against the law.
When we say we should tax the church, we are not talking about the offering and others but rather the ointments, oils, soaps and wines being sold at those premises. If you go to church to buy water then it means it’s like a stall and that water should be taxed.
But my dear friend Kwasi Amoah Boahen, I have spoken to number of Church leaders on that issue. Their claim, and I think it is a valid one, is that the do not sell water, oils, soaps and wines. Their claim is that they do it to raise money for Church Projects that further the Faith.
Now, I am not saying that all Churches sell Yams to raise money in Church to satisfy some well-meaning need of its members. I will not be surprised if some do it to put money in the pockets of the Pastor and Church leaders. But even in such cases, the question is not what or how to tax them. The question is more on the side of government to come up with meaningful regulation to monitor the tax-exempt status of any Church, or else, it is no longer a Church. Even NGO’s must obey the law. Even Philanthropists must obey the law. But the law shouldn’t be to tax them.
When we gather for a soccer game, and we decide to buy and sell Jerseys to the team to raise money for our next trip, it shouldn’t be taxed. No one taxes that!
A saving majority of Churches, I believe, will buy into meaningful monitoring of the tax-exempt statuses of their churches. Church leaders and thought leaders must come together to think about ways to weed out frauds (now that is a touchy space, but there’s meaning and some goodwill to go around to make it work).
So the place to start with discussing the issue is not Taxation. It is rather in Accounting, that is in having a diligent agency audit Churches according to the laws they have agreed upon. There’s a difference here: that in philosophy. Taxation is a different kind of philosophy, and it has never solved any social problem, except make it worse.
Vote Narmer for Defender of the Faith!
Faith must be defended! It is the highest expression of Free Will. It is the highest expression of Freedom and Liberty. At all costs, I will die defending everyone’s right to have Faith without paying for it!
The war in heaven, when Michael and his angels fought and the dragon and his angels fought but did not prevail and their habitations were no longer found. What was each side fighting for?
I guess they were fighting over the Apple and who will sit on the right hand side of God? Correct me if I am wrong.
Great points. Taxes sound like an unnecessary burden on communities. Why should the govt meddle everywhere in every conversation between kin folk? The Mehta need to back up with their wanting to bring western economics to every corner of African life.
Too many layers that need to be separated here.
In a capitalist economy i am an ardent proponent the taxation of the church.
The church can either be business or social in capitalist economies, and there are laws that govern each. In Singapore for instance, and as you might have been aware, Pastors, church elders and all host of those leeches are being prosecuted for misappropriation of church funds.
This significantly create some check and balances. We live in an era where people with no real philosophical and mental maturity in matters of the soul and spirit, gallivant around in pot bellies claiming to be prophets and genius’.
In social democracy, where citizens aren’t burdened with taxes, of course, one would find me advocating for the other.
It’s easy to confuse the two, but they aren’t the same
I do not support the taxation of churches.
Taking money from churches into state coffers for the politicians we know to manage? Nah. It’s a mistake.
We can only encourage churches to give back more to the community as most of the organized churches do and educate our people against teachings of charlatans.
We can better achieve this by abstracting their project cost from their taxes to get tax payable. The more projects you deliver to the society the smaller your actual tax becomes.
Samuel Ofori I bet to differ, much as I agree with concerning the church giving to society, how many of these churches actually give to society these days? It was even the Orthodox churches who used to do that but do they still do it? What about the numerous one man churches with their owners driving expensive cars, what do they do to society? So what’s wrong if they pay taxes. Tax they must pay and paying they will.
I think taxing the churches is counterproductive though. Because the entrepreneur pastors will find a way to push down this financial burden unto the church members. In the end, it’s the ordinary Ghanaian who will be slapped with yet another tax
You got a point there but I believe every church in Ghana earns enough to accommodate a little taxation