Griper News: Church Punished for Preaching what the Bible Actually Says

No, it's not some rightwing story of a bunch of nuts beating gays or assaulting women outside abortion clinics. It's about the government, in this case the IRS, punishing a church for preaching something that's actually in the Bible.

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - A liberal church that has been threatened with the loss of its tax-exempt status over an anti-war sermon delivered just days before the 2004 presidential election said Thursday it will fight an IRS order to turn over documents on the matter.

"We're going to put it in their court and in a court of law so that we can get an adjudication to some very fundamental issue here that we see as an intolerable infringement of rights," Bob Long, senior warden of All Saints Church, told The Associated Press.

He said the church's 26-member vestry voted unanimously to resist IRS demands for documents and an interview with the congregation's rector by the end of the month.

The church's action sets up a high-profile confrontation between the church and the IRS, which now must decide whether to ask for a hearing before a judge, who would then decide on the validity of the agency's demands.

All that crap about hating gays and banning abortion isn't actually in the Bible -- ask someone and they'll point out a verse and explain why it means you have to hate gays and women should be forced to remain pregnant against their will.

But, when the Bible is explicit, then you run into trouble with politicking... I guess, Bushworld being all bass ackward and everything. Check this out:

He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
-- Isaiah 2:4

1 comments:

Anonymous said...: Well, that verse is actually talking about a future time in which war will cease to exist. Not banning nations from taking part in war. (In my interpretation, anyway)

However, theres another scripture thats even more explicit!

Exodus 20:13 - "You shall not murder."

Pretty simple, eh? What is war other than state-sanctioned murder?; 1:53 PM