If religious organizations were taxed

[bore]

This is a terrible idea. The idea of taxing charlatans like Joel Olsteen is pretty attractive but I have no appetite for ruining important community organizations that give sanctuary/aid to the homeless, immigrants and the impoverished.

muh bill maher doe!!!!

I couldn't agree more. You don't have to be religious to agree that Churches do a lot of good for a lot of impoverished people.

Do they still require you trade your mental faculties for their hogwash or would even an atheist hobo receive a soup? 

I can't speak for America but in Edinburgh Christian organizations run a hugely disproportionate share of services for the homeless, and no one turns people away based on their religion.

[bore]

This is a terrible idea. The idea of taxing charlatans like Joel Olsteen is pretty attractive but I have no appetite for ruining important community organizations that give sanctuary/aid to the homeless, immigrants and the impoverished.

muh bill maher doe!!!!

I couldn't agree more. You don't have to be religious to agree that Churches do a lot of good for a lot of impoverished people.

Do they still require you trade your mental faculties for their hogwash or would even an atheist hobo receive a soup? 

I can't speak for America but in Edinburgh Christian organizations run a hugely disproportionate share of services for the homeless, and no one turns people away based on their religion.

Very good.  Now, onto Round 2.  Does the soup come with a pamphlet? 

No. I think your impression of christian charity (at least a lot of it) is based more on what you want to be the case rather than what actually is the case.

[bore]

This is a terrible idea. The idea of taxing charlatans like Joel Olsteen is pretty attractive but I have no appetite for ruining important community organizations that give sanctuary/aid to the homeless, immigrants and the impoverished.

muh bill maher doe!!!!

I couldn't agree more. You don't have to be religious to agree that Churches do a lot of good for a lot of impoverished people.

Do they still require you trade your mental faculties for their hogwash or would even an atheist hobo receive a soup? 

I can't speak for America but in Edinburgh Christian organizations run a hugely disproportionate share of services for the homeless, and no one turns people away based on their religion.

Very good.  Now, onto Round 2.  Does the soup come with a pamphlet? 

No. I think your impression of christian charity (at least a lot of it) is based more on what you want to be the case rather than what actually is the case.

What?!  Why would I ever desire evangilation? 

From your forum posts it's clear you're incredibly committed to the stance that religion poisons everything. Genuinely religious altruism (which evangelistic charity wouldn't be because it would have a benefit for the group running it) would completely disprove your theory, so it's not surprising that your pushing so strongly against the idea that it could exist.

[bore]

Bore, your perspective is from the milquetoast Church of England people in a country where evangelism is generally seen as distasteful.  We have a rather different perspective in the good ol' USA.

I've never been so mortally offended in my life. I'm Scottish

But yeah, like I said I don't know enough about the charity situation in the US to really comment on it. Like all sane people I find the vast majority of American Christianity awful. What I would say is the homelessness work which I'm really familiar with is done by various branches of Catholicism, and they don't discriminate or evangelise, so I'd assume that at least a good proportion of church charity projects in America are non discriminatory and non evangelistic.