I was with you until the last sentence.

Maybe in some countries, but in the US churches are blatantly violating laws regarding charitable and organizations funding, and political donations. And by blatantly, I mean they admit to the IRS and dare them to prosecute because they want to create stories about Obama's IRS thugs persecuting people of faith. Prosecutions and loss of status are rare for churches compared to any other tax-exempt group.

I wouldn't mind some examples if you've got them -- as I understand it, most churches are good at knowing where the line is drawn (basically you can say what you want about issues but you can't endorse specific candidates), but if I am mistaken I would like to know better.

The church I attended in college made it absolutely clear what candidates they wanted their members to vote for. Granted, this was in fairly rural WV, but I'd imagine most fundamentalist evangelical churches do likewise to some degree.

Were they explicit in naming the candidates? I realize we're splitting hairs here; when you attend a thoroughly right-wing church and they talk about voting for candidates who love America, there's little real question who they mean. On the other hand, churches are supposed to address the morality of issues of the day, so you can't tell a church that it can't do its job. If we're splitting hairs, it's because that's how the IRS has to be about this.

Oh dear.

What is inherently wrong with a church?

There's nothing wrong with a church. It's the fairy tales being taught as literal history and/or truth inside them that's the root of the problem.

I'd be a lot happier if it was made clear that the messages are metaphorical or allegorical, but that's not what the congregation goes for. I attended an Easter service (under duress) and had to sit still while the idiot minister of an Episcopalian congregation pimped "Heaven Is For Real," equating belief in the afterlife with belief in things you don't understand that ACTUALLY EXIST like storing files "in the cloud" (he liked that one a lot, since it sounds like heaven, doesn't it?) or using a cell phone.

I've never wanted to punch a 60-year-old man in a suit as much since Ronald Reagan.

Christianity is useful to the extent that it champions the powerless, and destructive to the extent that it champions the powerful. Same as every other institution on earth. The truly disheartening thing about American right-wing Christianity is that it seems to be intended to destroy morality.

I've read that the standard American right-wing approach to the Bible comes straight out of the slave-holding days, when anyone who paid even a little attention to the Bible could figure out that slavery was wrong. So a new hermeneutic was devised: dwell on a handful of useful passages at the expense of the rest of the Bible, insist on literal reading (and by the way "my" reading is the correct reading), and whatever you do don't try to actually understand your religion.

I say that you'll get a more worthwhile form of Christianity if you treat the Bible more as principles to reflect upon, and less of a rule book that functions like the rules of major league baseball. You might even get to the point where you decide Christianity is something you grow out of, and call me crazy, but I figure Jesus would have wanted it that way.

giggle

Don't worry, these parasites have thought of that. The "Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Company" in Australia and New Zealand are a huge breakfast cerial and food company that somehow get to pay no tax due to being owned by seventh day adventists and giving all profits to "charity" - IE the church.

In Buffet's defense, he has lobbied Obama to increase taxes on himself.