Charities and Sin

Question: do you know if Churches are official charities when it comes to these donations? Not sure how a "charity" is defined, something to do with tax purposes perhaps?

Here in the United States they are. Contributions made to churches are tax deductible. Further, churches themselves are not subject to property taxes, if I understand things correctly.

Some very interesting things bubble up from this:

• It creates a great temptation to call oneself a "church" to receive comparable benefits, does it not? So the IRS (Internal Revenue Service -- "The Taxman" Harrison sang about) must go through some process to declare an organization "a church." Still, the designation has been granted to many things, not just what we traditionally think of as "church". It's a gray, hazy, squiggley line.
• It brings the IRS sniffing at the door if the church engages in things they should not; most notably, political campaigning from the pulpit. It goes on all the time, usually in subtle ways, but often in not-so-subtle ways. There's a definite double-standard at play -- Democrats openly campaign in black churches and nobody in the IRS seems to raise an eyebrow. Conservative churches that "campaign" for an issue (pro life, anti-homosexual) have been subject to IRS review.
• The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided a case (Kelo) in which they determined by a 5-4 vote that municipalities had the right to invoke emminent domain (the seizure of private property for community use) even if the "use" was simply to generate more tax revenue. So now poor people can have their private property seized to build a new shopping center. But getting back to the point ... churches represent huge footprints of non-productive real estate from a tax perspective. I've read of more and more church building permits being denied. And there's at least one case in California where a church's property was threatened so a Costco super-warehouse could be built.

Nothing is ever cut-and-dry, is it?

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As to the study that shows that people contribute more if they feel they have sinned, or contribute more if they feel "dirty" due to lack of bathing ... very interesting. Not entirely suprising, either.

We humans seem almost genetically predisposed to the notion of earning (or buying) forgiveness for our guilt. The notion of our guilt being removed through no effort of our own really is an uncomfortable thing to accept.

It's like accepting a flattering compliment ... most people will try to downplay it, or argue with it. Accepting praise with grace is one of the hardest things to do. We seem to not like receiving something for nothing ... perhaps it makes us feel like we're then indebted or something.