In preparing applications for 501(c)(3) status for various entities, I have often come across the statement that there is no definition for a “church” in the Internal Revenue Code; the examiners who determine whether a particular applicant for tax-exempt status… Continue Reading
I anticipate some flak coming my way on this point after Tea Partiers read below that I criticized Christine O’Donnell. So here is a brief refresher for those among you who see grave Constitutional peril in a particular semantic. The… Continue Reading
A thunderstorm just blew through our area. It dumped a ton of hail out in our yard; it’s far too warm and wet for the hail to last very long but it was loud and filled with lightning and thunder,… Continue Reading
People ask sometimes — either explicitly or by implication — why it is that I direct so much snark at Christianity. And in fact, most Christians I know are good people, smart people, reasonable people who do not let the… Continue Reading
So newly-nominated U.S. Senate candidate apparently once “dabbled into witchcraft” back in her early twenties. That sounds like a gigantic yawner of a non-story to me. There being no religious test for the holding of Federal office and all forms… Continue Reading
Supplanting, but related to, the sort-of-mosque that’s sort-of-not-built-yet at a place that’s sort-of-near-Ground Zero, is the story about a flamboyant Florida pastor who plans to hold a bonfire of Korans on September 11. I’m not a fan of book burnings… Continue Reading
Following are forty passages excerpted from four holy books. One is the Torah and canonical prophets of the Hebrew tradition, what Christians call the “Old Testament.” One is the collected Christian Gospels and epistles of Paul the Apostle, what Christians… Continue Reading
Allow me to point you Readers to an article at Slate Salon chronicling the evolution of the “Mosque right on top of two blocks from Ground Zero” controversy. From its inception until less than four months ago, Cordoba House project… Continue Reading
My city has adopted a policy by which its City Council devotes a few minutes after calling the meeting to order for the delivery of an invocation — an invocation which permits of sectarian invocations, such as “…and this we… Continue Reading
I’ve heard and read a lot of arguments about why it’s in bad taste for a mosque to be built right on top of two blocks away from Ground Zero, and about how it would be hurtful to the survivors… Continue Reading