Menu of Questions

Why should a church refuse to be a 501c3? 

What exactly is a 501c3 anyway?

In what way is a church beholden to the World as a 501c3?

Does a church have to be a 501c3?

Doesn't a 501c3 allow the church to be exempt from paying taxes?

Doesn't a 501c3 allow tithers and givers to claim contributions as tax deductions?

Doesn't a 501c3 allow the corporation's employees to have certain benefits, like a housing allowance?

Doesn't a non-profit get other advantages by proclaiming themselves as such, like eligibility for grants, bulk mail rates, exemptions from state sales taxes, and so forth?

Isn't the essence of the non-profit exactly what it says— to prevent someone or some powerful group in the organization from unduly profiting from its success?

Isn't an advantage the accountability a church can have?

Non-profits have always had the reputation of being right and wholesome. Isn't that a good thing?

Won't terminating a 501c3 drive people away from our church?

You don't seem to understand— this is the real world. People just won't give money to organizations that aren't 501c3. How will we sustain ourselves if we don't get funded?

You keep using the term “God club.” What exactly is that?

Isn't a 501c3 an important part of financial stewardship, for both the church leadership and the flock?

How, exactly, does a 501c3 commitment keep a pastor from saying what he wants about Jesus and the gospel from the pulpit?

How does a 501c3 make my church a state-church?

Doesn't a 501c3 do the most for the church by protecting it from personal liability claims?

Isn't an advantage of not incorporating the freedom to boldly and more effectively challenge the government and its evils?

What about recently considered legislation in Congress (June of 2005: H.R. 235) that would allow pastors to speak more freely about political issues?

(October 2008) What about the thirty or so pastors who brazenly defied the prohibition on partisan speech by unequivocally endorsing John McCain for U.S. president from their pulpits on a single given Sunday?

Won't we be intimidated or pressured if we are not a 501c3?

Could it get to a point where 501c3-free churchgoers are actually put in jail?

Isn't having a 501c3 simply the harmless purchase of a service, just as if the church were purchasing the service of a painter to give the walls a fresh coat of paint?

What about considering 501c3 as a license, like a business license?

If a 501c3 is so bad, why are so many churches in this country 501c3's— almost all of them!

Are you saying in all this that the church today is apostate?

Here's a more relevant question: These followers of Christ who say they are fully devoted to Him, why would they so willingly sign on to a 501c3?

So then a 501c3 contract, and being a "God club," is a pretty bad thing?

What do you say to the pastor or ministry worker who just says, "It really isn't that big a thing"?

How then do we really know whether or not we have a God club or a church? It is very difficult not to be deceived! And come on, all people in a church are just not perfect, many are still very immature spiritually. What about that?

What is your key Scriptural support for this?

Why really does the government offer this deal to begin with? What's in it for them?

Okay then, why is the government so deceptive? Why is it trying to trick us all?

What about other ministry opportunities that are not exactly church assemblies?  What is their liability in all this?

Okay, let's get down to brass tacks. What, really, will we get by being 501c3-free when it is so costly?

But so many churches are 501c3's. So many, almost every one! Can't you see the good that comes from such an arrangement?

How then does a church move on terminating a 501c3?

Final note

A Letter to a Church Pastor

For more on the meaning of living under Christ's Truth and Grace in contrast to the law, click here.

For more elaboration on the nature of the Catholicist Nation, click here.

For more information about terminating a 501c3 contract, visit hushmoney.org

For more information about the nature of federal income tax liability, visit The Tax Issue.

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Other World System Contracts

This page was originally posted by David Beck at yourownjesus.net on June 4, 2005