Churches Should Pay Taxes 2

According to CBS News, between 1998 and 2005, two-thirds of U.S. corporations didn’t pay taxes. They are making a profit, and they don’t help contribute to the running of this nation. As citizens, we’re expected to pay, and it seems only fair that companies should, too.  Would you agree?

It also seems fair that churches should pay taxes, too. They make a profit and are run like a business. Think of all the stories of abuse and excess. If you want to see how much televangelists make, read this article. You’ll see the life of some pastors is better than that of Oprah.  

Let’s look at this more closely. If I provide a service–say yoga classes–then I must pay taxes on my service. My clients might really believe that yoga is the way to god and enlightenment. Yet I cannot claim a tax-exempt status. Maybe I don’t believe in religion, and I want to offer massage services. I believe this will help improve the quality of life for my clients, that this will also improve their humanity. Yet I have to pay taxes on my earnings, even though, for me, my service is way more beneficial to humanity than church service. Too bad.

So, it just seems fair, that all profit-making organizations pay taxes. Very simple. If a church is raking in $1M a year, they should help pay for our roads, schools and the unemployed.

I’m OK, You’re OK

A few years ago, my son had a really good 5th grade teacher. Unfortunately, she talked about religion in class. A lot. Now, if she had talked about magic or devil-worshipping, I’m sure she would have been fired. 

That teacher, Mrs. P., asked my kid straight-out what church he went to. He told her that our family doesn’t believe in going to church. We are agnostics. She asked the class if someone wanted to come to our house, pick up my son and take him to church “with their family.”  I don’t know why I didn’t go in and speak with her. I was mistaken–I believed I was being tolerant.  My son had said, “no thanks,” so there was no reason. She was a good math teacher. I didn’t want to rock the proverbial boat.

Now, however, my kid is still asked to go to church, Sunday school and all sorts of church productions. He feels pressured to go. As I look back, I’m thinking, maybe I didn’t send him (and the teacher) the message that what we believe is OK, too. School is a place of learning, not worship. If we want to teach our children about other faiths, then let’s do it objectively in the classroom and set aside special time. But I don’t think it’s right to make nonbelievers feel guilty or ungrateful for the life we have. Kids can still learn kindness and gratitude without believing in magic.

Man says kids found starved in Dallas motel bathroom were fed but wouldn’t eat | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Breaking News for Dallas-Fort Worth | Dallas Morning News

Man says kids found starved in Dallas motel bathroom were fed but wouldn’t eat | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Breaking News for Dallas-Fort Worth | Dallas Morning News.

I have to admit that I have been following this story. I have no idea why.  I don’t watch the news. Ever. I get all my info from the Internet just so that I can avoid stories like this. My husband, however, still loves his newspaper, and I saw this story on the front page one day.

Alfred Santiago did some horrible things to his stepchildren. He beat them. Molested the 11yo girl. He starved them. He kept them locked up in a motel bathroom–for months.

This is the type of story that, to this day, I still remember made me lose my faith in god. It just takes a litte snag or splinter and soon the whole faith thing will unravel. I’m not denying anyone their god. I’m just saying–this–this is what started it all.

Why do people harm innocent children, theirs or others? Why do we cheer when the military drops bombs on the “enemy,” harming children and the elderly? How can a mother stand by and watch her boyfriend torture her babies?

No faith in god can make us feel better about our humanity. A loving god? Why does he let things like this happen? Why did he allow Santiago to be born into a world where he would bring evil? Don’t tell me, “It’s not for us to know or it’s god’s will.” An all-powerful creator who would let children suffer seems very unkind. You say he loves you? He hears and answers your prayers? I hope you’re just lucky. I know there are people who pray for an end to suffering.  It would seem incredibly unfair that god would choose you over these kids.

Whether you are Catholic or Baptist, Jewish or agnostic, you and I will share these basic values. These types of stories are simply heart-breaking. No amount of god, logic or science can explain why people can be so inhumane.

Does religion deserve special protection

Here’s an interesting article by Stanley Fish.  Does religion deserve special protection under the law? Yes,  according to Fish. Seems to me that here is the crux of so many problems, nationally and internationally. I say that it does NOT deserve special protections. It is covered under freedom of speech.

Does anybody else have an opinion on this?

Teen mom seeks right formula to pass TAKS math test | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Teen mom seeks right formula to pass TAKS math test | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News.

This is the typical student I would get in my community college classes. The kid who barely made it out of high school, who took multiple attempts to pass the TAKS, who was only in college because their friends were or their parents wanted them there.  Ppl act surprised when students suddenly get to the 12th grade and cannot exit high school. Did parents and teachers not see the student stumbling and struggling over the years?

Although one reader commented at the bottom of the linked story that this was a bigoted portrayl, the truth is, I rarely had “black” students in my class. Most were plain ol’ white kids, followed by Hispanic. It’s too bad we have to focus on color when what we really should be focusing on is teaching kids the basics.

This story makes me feel embarrassed about our schools.

American Students Failing

It’s no secret that American students are falling behind other nations in their education. As a community college teacher, I can tell you that I have seen recent high school grads who cannot even compose a solid essay. I’m not talking about kids who have learning disabilities or who don’t have the hardware to learn. I’m talking about normal kids who floated like styrofoam atop the sea of school. They never learned to swim.

There are a few other things I noticed about these kids who have been left behind. First, they have poor student skills. They show up late. They turn in sloppy work. They turn in someone else’s work. They don’t participate in class when asked. They don’t do their homework. The list is much longer, but you get the idea.

Second, these kids often have very poor analytical skills. I have to walk them through reasoning out an essay. Logical reasoning should be a course taken in the 9th grade to help students with all their subjects. It provides not only an academic foundation, but also helps them make good life decisions.

I once asked my class to write an essay on the question, “Why do you think American students are so far behind other nations?” One student wrote two pages on the answer, “We just no how to have fun.” At 19, he didn’t even know the difference between “no” and “know.”

Where did we go wrong? Certainly, the schools are partly to blame. Yet we must also look at the parents. Wasn’t there some point along the way when they looked over their children’s homework? Didn’t they see along the way that their kids were not learning as they should?

Over the next couple of posts, I want to address the topic, “What can we do to help our children succeed in school.” This is not the government’s job or the teacher’s job. It’s our job to make sure our kids are learning.

Little Brother

When my parents had kids, they planted two seeds in the earth, metaphorically and, in a way, literally. You’d think those seeds would bear similar plants. My brother turned out to be a Live Oak tree, however, and I turned out to be a snake. You get what I’m trying to say. We are different. 

My younger brother never gets on the “net.” He doesn’t know I have blogs. He’s never read any of my stuff in print or on-line. It’s safe to say he won’t see the part of his e-mail I’m about to share.  He recently learned how to e-mail, and here’s what he sent:

If it wasn’t for God and the prayers that i have shared with him i be dead. Staying at moms this week grand mom came to me in my sleep waking me up in the middle of the night crying. I use to do so many drugs that i could never remembered any of my dreams, now i remember everything. Prayer has been my strongest weapon. It’s like when we were kids we knee down by the bed and pray i still follow the same procedures. I hadn’t prayed for a week being slack so i prayed one night last week the next day someone bought my motorcycle. I don’t pray for myself i pray for everyone else. I’m not selfish, it’s funny God doesn’t give you what you want or what you ask for but he gives you what you need. I use to think why does God do this to me what did i do until i realized i did it to myself.

I didn’t change a word of his text, nor did I correct any of his grammar errors. This is my brother, and he needs his god. He needs his prayer. He would be lost without ‘the big guy in the sky.’  I read this and responded to him, respectfully. I would never attack his faith. But I sure don’t see why his god would have the time or the desire to send a buyer for his motorcycle.  And I have no idea why my grandmother, who was creamated last year, would return  and cry to my brother.

 

Death Penalty

I know it doesn’t happen very often, but it makes me sad to learn that innocent people are incarcerated or put to death. Imagine spending most of your life in jail as an innocent man or woman. In the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, he not only lost his freedom and his life, he also lost his children. I cannot imagine any greater pain than that.

Willingham, executed in Texas, was accused of setting a fire that killed his three children, but three experts later reviewed the evidence and said that the case should not have been ruled arson.  I would think that arson is difficult to prove beyond a doubt anyway.  Critics of Rick Perry say that he has hindered a review of Willingham’s case.   

As a Chrisitan nation, it just seems strange to me that we even allow the death penalty. We kill people when we think they are guilty. We play god and take their lives. An eye for an eye. Yet the criminal justice system is like one big shrimping net. Caught in there are fish that were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Don’t we lose our humanity when we kill for vengeance?

Are we pre-wired for morality?

This is a really good article in the New York Times. David Brooks writes about the “moral naturalists” who believe that we are born with an innate morality and that our sense of right and wrong has evolved throughout history, even before man came into the picture. 

I’m not a scientist, but I believe this to be true. I have kids, and I’ve seen that they are not the tabula rosa we might think.  I remember when my kids were babies. They could tell when I was sad and when I was happy. I didn’t teach them that. At only a few months of age, if I was distressed, it stressed them out, too.  They seemed to be hard-wired for empathy, and that’s the basis of  moral behavior.

Being ‘pre-wired” for morality doesn’t mean we’re all the same. The culture we grow up in will form our conscious belief systems. If you grew up in Iran and believe that stoning women as punishment is acceptable, then that will seem normal to you. Here, such a practice would seem barbaric (though we have similar such practices for men and women we deem guilty of serious crimes-death by lethal injection, firing squad, electric chair).

We have a lot of control when it comes to raising moral kids. Through our actions and our words, we help form their morality. Because of how I feel, my children are very vocal about the immorality of war. They know that for the conflict between a few, thousands of innocent men, women and children are killed.  They know that resolving conflict through physical violence is not humane, nor sensible. They understand that our “enemy” is not strictly good or bad, but both good and bad. Just like us.

Obesity

Gluttony is supposed to be a sin, and yet I live in one of the most obese states in the nation. I don’t want to offend anyone, but it seems to me that if you believe in the teachings of Jesus, you should not be eating so much.

When I took my kids to a restaurant that had a buffet the other night, it was a good time to teach them that, just because you can fill your plate with food, doesn’t mean you should. Sure, it’s all one price, and we could pig out, but that’s not right for our bodies, for our society and for humanity. While we’re eating more than our body needs and taking more than our fair share, some other person is hungry. My younger kid piped up and said, “Well, it’s all here and they’re just going to throw it away. That’s really wasting.” True. But it’s only here because consumers have been demanding it. If we had to pay by the ounce, we wouldn’t be so quick to pile our plates high and to leave so much waste. Once we stop eating so much, restaurants will scale back. Besides, just because there’s trash already on the ground, it doesn’t mean we should throw ours there, too.  

Sometimes we have to teach our kids to do the right thing, even when it doesn’t make sense.