From Kiwiblog, on the thread that begain by talking about the HRC taking the Anglican Bishop to court for refusing an unchaste prospective priest’s application.
nasska (6,243) Says:
May 6th, 2013 at 1:12 pmChurches within NZ do enjoy independence & freedom from Government interference. Regrettably the rest of us do not enjoy freedom from religious meddling & lobbying.
The God afflicted have one vote each, exactly the same as the rest of us but this isn’t enough for them. Rather they seek extra influence through their organisations, then demand that the taxpayers subsidise the propaganda by granting them tax exemption.
“My God & Me & the Hell with Thee” sums it up.
Vote:
3
4
And then he followed it up with this:
nasska (6,243) Says:
May 6th, 2013 at 1:34 pmscrubone
Off the top of my head there are a few examples of religious organisations meddling in politics:
1) Bishop Tamaki & his lot
2) The Exclusive Bretheren in 2005
3) The Ratana Church
4) SPUC
5) The SPCS
If I have a vote I have a political influence…..you have the same vote plus an organisation piling on political pressure..
When I later pointed out that he was completely inconsistent with… well, democracy, religious freedom and all that stuff, he changed his mind and claimed it was all about tax exemptions.
One can only wonder how someone’s thinking can get so screwed up that you think religious people have some sort of “extra vote” or some such thing because there are groups lobbying who you agree with.
Meanwhile, Family First have had a good whine about losing their tax exempt status. Given they were setup first and foremost to represent family issues in Parliament I was surprised when they were given charitable status. So I’m not so worried about it being taken away – though the circumstances in which they have been do raise an eyebrow.
Something should go here, maybe later. 