Scientology Article Deserves Read
National Politics, Religion Comments (0)
L. Ron Hubbard has better lobbyists than God
If you haven’t yet read this article then you should…..now.
Go on. I will wait until you get back.
Have you read it yet?
No. I’m serious. Go read it now. Yes, it is that important.
Ben Shapiro makes a good point about the IRS establishing religion by allowing one group to write off something that is routinely denied to other religious bodies. Well, in fact, Michael Sklar made the point, but I think that Mr. Shapiro does a good job of putting it in perspective.
Scientologists are allowed to deduct their costs donations for learning that (and let me quote from Ben’s article, who in turn is quoting from Hollywood, Interrupted):
“Over 75 million years ago, in a universe far, far away, evil alien overlord Xenu captured all the rebel souls by calling them in for tax auditing and, after injecting them with a mixture of glycol and alcohol, they were transported in B-1 bombers to earth and flung into volcanoes. Then the volcanoes were exploded with neutron bombs. The souls of these immolated aliens, called body thetans (thetan is L. Ron’s word for souls), now cling to us like nasty body lice, through reincarnation after reincarnation, and can only be removed through hours of auditing at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
If I were to set up a religious school and tell people that they could claim a tax deduction for learning that God created the world in six literal days, people would tell me that I was off my rocker. The humanists and liberals would be screaming for my head. Because religious training is not deductible.
So, what makes Scientology so different? Perhaps it is money.
Think about it. If it costs $300,000.00 to become a “clear” and Scientology has one million adherants (the last estimate given the Church of Scientology was eight million adherants back in 1996). Well, you do the math. That’s a lot of clams to devote to cutting deals with taxing agencies.
What is the solution?
That’s the more difficult question. On one hand, Michael Sklar has a point: Scientologists have been able to get away with this for the last ten years and you really cannot make them give the money back. So, perhaps he is right that the answer is to allow everyone to deduct their costs for religious training.
On the other hand, if the IRS allowed one group to break the law, then the answer to correcting that is usually to make that group comply with the law, not to say that we’ll just disregard the law.
And the gripping hand? I’m not sure.
MickC @ May 18, 2004