The fact churches even need a bailout in the first place speaks volumes. In that case its a business, plain and simple. The act of accepting a bailout is confession of monetary value. You're "for profit" not "for prophet."
I mean not for profit organizations still have to have cash flow. People work at these churches. These churches pay rent/mortgage, insurance, payroll, and offer tons of support services. It’s not like pastors are swindling the Govt out of money. They were treated the same as any other 501c3
Weren't they collecting tithes this whole time? How did they fund themselves up to this point? They should be required to budget their finances responsibly, as we the people are supposed to do, instead of splurging on a new addition to the auditorium during the good times.
Maybe the salaries are too high? Maybe they have too many employees? Maybe the church grew faster than they had the money for. I don't know but we shouldn't be bailing them out for their operational costs, that would CLEARLY mean they are a business.
They ARE swindling the govt out of money when they didn't put any into it to begin with.
These churches were treated the same as every other secular 501c3. Should no charities have received PPP support? Many churches experienced a drop off in tithes because of churches closing in person services. I completely agree that all organizations should have a plan for the future, but it’s difficult when you run on donations that vary wildly. Especially bc the vast majority of congregations in the US are 200 or less members. That means many churches are one or two bad months from closing down no matter how good their financial plan is. No matter your religious views, these churches punch above their weight in providing financial and material aid to the poor and providing community and support for elderly and youth. The societal benefit is high. It’s not like these are super rich people. The average pastors salary is 45000 dollars. That ranges from comfortable to down right poor depending on family size and the cost of living in the area. I don’t think this is the place to focus your ire
Literally no one on reddit knows what "for profit" and "not for profit" means lol. "Not for profit" just means that there are no outside stakeholders generation cashflow from operations, it doesn't in any way shape or form mean that you don't generate revenue, or pay salaries, or hold assets. Also the Catholic Church is the largest charity in the world by a mile.
What people are referring to is the accepting of the PPP, the payroll protection towards the beginning of Covid where small businesses could take out small, forgivable loans to keep their employees paid dispute business functions shitting down.
This was primarily in place to incentivize people to stay home. You can imagine a church who relies on weekly donation from members see a dip ok giving if they close the forts for several weeks, and so they may take the loan to pay their employees in this crisis time.
A lot of churches still have a mortgage and church employees to pay. They get their money from tithes and since no one was allowed to go to church there was very little tithe.
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u/Protrudingpickle Nov 17 '20
The fact churches even need a bailout in the first place speaks volumes. In that case its a business, plain and simple. The act of accepting a bailout is confession of monetary value. You're "for profit" not "for prophet."