Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dciem.UUCP
Path: utzoo!dciem!mmt
From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion
Subject: Re: "Secular Humanism" banned in the US Schools.
Message-ID: <1692@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 20:45:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.1692
Posted: Wed Sep 25 20:45:27 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 22:00:26 EDT
References: <1072@ulysses.UUCP> <607@hou2g.UUCP> <5847@cbscc.UUCP> <673@utastro.UUCP> <5878@cbscc.UUCP> <717@utastro.UUCP> <1091@uscvax.UUCP26 Sep 85 00:45:27 GMT
Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE)
Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada
Lines: 31
Summary: 


>Look at this from the other side. If the donations to a church were taxed
>the government could claim a right to look at any records of the church
>to determine contributions. Such power can be (ab)used by the state to
>harass unpopular sects. Something of this sort happened to a TV preacher in
>LA. The FCC decided that it had a right to see all donation records to the
>church to determine whether or not fraud had been committed by the preacher.
>The preacher (Gene Scott) never let his records out for various religious
>and constitutional reasons. However, the courts didn`t see it that way and
>the FCC pulled the license for his TV station. The last that I heard the FCC
>was going after a TV station the church owns in No. California and after a
>couple of radio stations owned by the church. The problem here is that a
>church does have a right to protect its records from government intrusion.
>The FCC needs to see those records to determine whether a fraud has been
>committed. The FCC claims it has a right to see the records since his TV
>ministry is a television station business and the FCC has been given broad
>power over its licensees. In this case, it appears that the FCC has overstepped
>the bounds of its authority. But since it was upheld by the courts it 
>can go about trying to silence that church (on TV that is). 

Why is this harrassment?  Should all so-called churches be treated
differently from other advertising agencies?
These TV "churches" are mainly money-spinners, so why shouldn't they
be investigated for possible fraud?  What does that have to do with
religion, except for the unsavoury habit these people have of preying
on the praying?
-- 

Martin Taylor
{allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt
{uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsri!dciem!mmt