Churches Won’t Be Charged “Rain Tax” if they Preach Global Warming

al_gore_prophet

If the left can’t get around the First Amendment one way, it will find another way around it.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley made national news last year when he fought to pass and signed a tax bill that levied a tax on Marylanders, businesses and churches for the amount of “impervious surface” they have on their property.

Though the O’Malley administration calls it a “fee,” it is commonly called the “rain tax” throughout the state. It is wildly unpopular and the promise to fight to repeal the tax was a large factor in Maryland electing Republican Larry Hogan governor this month.

Now Prince George’s County is offering a way for churches to avoid paying the tax, which is estimated to be an average of $744 per year for them — preach “green” to their parishioners.

So far 30 pastors have agreed to begin “‘green’ ministries to maintain the improvements at their churches, and to preach environmentally focused sermons to educate their congregations” to avoid being hit with the tax, The Washington Post reports.

No church and state problems here. No ACLU lawsuits. No sermon subopenas. Just a good old-fashioned state church preaching the word of Mother Earth and Global Warming and green energy subsidies for highly deserving businesses.

But school vouchers so inner city kids can get access to a better education is still the devil. Every good liberal will be up in arms about it.

 

  • http://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/ Edward Cline

    Wonders never cease. Just think of it: The first sermons based on hockey sticks and drowning polar bears. Shiver me timbers, it’s COLD outside. That global warming is a strange animal!

    • tagalog

      I found it interesting that environmentalists were claiming that the most recent cold snap, the one we’re in right now, is a polar vortex (I’m told it isn’t) that has resulted from the cold air being driven out of the polar region by warmer air.

      I suppose that theory is grounded in the claim that when global warming occurs it will get warmer first at the poles. But where is the warmer air at the poles coming from?

      Could it be that some pesky warm air from the industrial regions of the earth is sneaking its way up to the polar area? How would it do that, pray tell? Otherwise, is the warm air just generating itself up there?

      • Scar

        Yes, and the polar ice caps are growing…further proof that warm air is trapped in that region.

      • nightspore

        Polar vortex is so last-year … If they’re using it again, this may indicate that they can’t think of any new excuses.

        If AGW were true there would be more warming at the poles relative to the equator (a bigger anomaly in climate-speak), but that doesn’t mean it should get colder elsewhere. That’s a complete hack, which makes no sense at all.

        • Attila Iskander

          tstev. is this your new nym

      • DarkStarAz

        “Yes, and the polar ice cap is growing…further proof that warm air is trapped in that region….” unless of course they start shrinking, in which that too will will be due to GW…

  • ricardomontalban

    That’s textbook criminal extortion.

    • Kimo

      It used to be unlawful (known as the “unconstitutional conditions doctrine”) until Roberts approved Obamacare. Roberts reasoned that although the legislation was unconstitutional, the government could still force compliance through the taxing power. Here, the government is similarly allowed to violate the First Amendment protections of freedom of speech and freedom of religion by the threat of imposition of a tax.

    • klem

      The can’t preach about mother earth, that’s a pagan god and they know it.

      And yes it is extortion. In the old days mafia criminals would offer protection to store owners for a fee, if the store owner declined to pay it, the criminals would vandalize their store until they paid the ‘protection money’. It was simply the cost of doing business.

      Today many corporations now donate to green organizations and/or contribute to green initiatives to keep the attack dogs of the green mafia off their backs. Its the same thing, protection money. Its the cost of doing business.

  • Lightbringer

    Why not? The more left-wing denominations of both Christianity and Judaism are already halfway to pagan earth-worship. They are already preaching it. Of course when God created man, He charged us with keeping our room neat. But that’s a far cry from worshipping the creation instead of the Creator.

    • Dan Knight

      Brilliant, Lightbringer! LOL too. Happy Thanksgiving!

      • Lightbringer

        Thank you, Dan, and a happy Thanksgiving to you, too.

  • tagalog

    Won’t preaching global warming be non-religious advocacy that could lose them their religious tax exemptions?

  • Hard Little Machine

    So now everything will look like every JCC in America with an unpaved parking lot.

    • Pete

      There are asphalt types that are permeable. They have been used in the last decade specifically for this purpose to help drainage.

      • johninohio1

        The Maryland enforcers won’t be able to, or care to, see permeable asphalt on Google maps.

        • Pete

          An enterprising film director could work a jab to the former Democrat governor into a short segment into a film.

          You want the person who is ignorant of the permeable asphalt to come across as stupid as the cousins in National Lampoon’s Family Vacation.

          Have the character to be mocked make 2 stupid statements while in discussion with the protagonist. One regarding the car lot with the asphalt (permeable) and one to something else. While he is pontificating it rains and there is no runoff.

      • Hard Little Machine

        Dear Religious Institutions in America

        Tear up your parking lots at your own expense and replace them with Obamasurface or you will be subject to immediate arrest. That is all.

  • Bamaguje

    So Maryland Churches will no longer be about Jesus, but about global warming green propaganda.
    And I thought this totalitarian arm-twisting of churches that dictates their sermons only occurred in Communist dictatorships.

    • Exsaint

      Like the one we live in now, thanks to Chairman ObaMAO and his hordes of useful idiots.

    • Pete

      There are asphalt types that are permeable.

      They could have grandfathered old parking lots in and made all repavements subject to the tax if it wasn’t impermeable

      But it is a Democrat governor and it was jump and a jump now.

    • Attila Iskander

      There was something on the same line of thinking where a DA issues subpoenas for the sermons and other documents of ministers who dared to criticize some city initiatives.
      http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/29/houston-mayor-drops-bid-to-subpoena-pastors-sermons/

    • largejack

      Exactly

    • Russell Lissuzzo

      Communist dictatorship? Never in what ONCE was AMERICA!!

      Si vis pacem, para bellum

  • ebonystone

    Are roofs included among the “impervious surfaces” ? If not, they ought to be.

  • Getreal

    Also known as the Judas Compromise for ecogelicals.

  • J.R.A.

    How embarrassing for the churches cursed with pastors soft of spine. Although, the congregations must approve the action. Shame on them all.

  • BruceMichaelGrant

    Crooked political schemes 101. Impose an unreasonable and unpopular law then sell exemptions either outright or under the table.
    Happens so often that it’s accepted as normal. Examples include truck scale bypasses, high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes that accept toll pass technology and toll roads themselves that bypass gridlock.

  • gmm777

    And this is one of the many reasons I got out of maryland…that place justs sux with liberal fool Democrats…

    • tagalog

      Too bad about Maryland, used to be a really nice place.

  • tom_billesley

    The way out of this is to direct all the rainwater into a big hole filled with gravel. None goes into a public drain and you don’t have to pay for what goes into the soakaway.

    • T100C1970

      This has been mandatory for new parking lot construction where I live (in SC .. definitely not a bastion of Algorism .. ) for years. I don’t know if the Maryland law exempts new lots that have this but I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t

  • John Calvin’s boy

    I’m a pastor and for the fee abatement I’d preach about climate change, etc., (and have) but they sure would not want me to say what I would tell my congregation about the AGW/CC fraud!

    This is beginning to look more and more like the Third Reich and the, so called, German Christian movement of the 1930s.

  • WalterBannon

    The public should lynch Gov. Martin O’Malley

    • Pete

      You could mock him in a better version of SNL.

  • birddog

    I wonder what these churches will preach next, abortion is just another choice, homosexuality is OK with God………….

  • Betawelder

    So much for freedom of Religion or Speech. Still a gun to your head.

  • T100C1970

    I’d say the exemption is 100% unconstitutional. I hope some group of churches will file suit.

  • MarilynA

    Global warming is a hoax dreamed up by the same Pseudo scientists who gave us the Alar in the apples scare back in the 1980s. One of the leaders of that movement publicly bragged, “You see what we did to the apples? Wait until you see what we are about to do the tomatoes.” Fortunately the alar in the apples scare was exposed and the tomato scare was dropped. They zeroed in on the environment “because it was the cause under which they felt they could unite the most people and empower them to overthrow our government.” “They” are the militant radical activists who organized and lead the violent antiwar Peace and civil rights movements in the 60s. They now control our educational systems, colleges, universities and government. Have a nice Day. PS. I know because I was one of them during the late 1980s when the environmental hoax was dreamed up. A word to the wise. The eruption of one volcano puts more green house gas pollutants in the air than man has in the past 100 years. that is a fact. And these loons think they are smarter than God and can fix it by controlling human behavior.

  • LibertyWriter

    false teachers

  • Attila Iskander

    Sure..
    Why do’n’t you support that with a credible referecnce.

    • Russell Lissuzzo

      It will take you time for personal research. That has been my MO for over 50 years of finding truth. I made the statements for I know they are true, but never take any one’s word, find it for yourself. Confidence in position of strength can only be found if accomplished by yourself.

      • Attila Iskander

        Affirmation is not proof..
        Come on back when you can do better.

        • Russell Lissuzzo

          http://www.spirituallysmart.com/nazi.html

          http://www.blessedquietness.com/journal/housechu/album.htm

          http://www.ewtn.com/library/chistory/PIUS12.htm

          I won’t lend you any of the books in my library. I am not going to type out a history course. You must read, as I did over the years and follow as many sources as you can until it becomes apparent you are noting TRUTH. I am a Christian, born, baptized, raised, confirmed and married in the Catholic sect of Christianity. Anymore personal info than that, you’ll have to buy dinner for me.

          • Attila Iskander

            Wow.
            In your first reference, Hitler is cited as saying hat he >>COPIED<>IMITATE<< them
            The 2nd is nothing but superficial propaganda. Mostly smear based on the behavior of individuals trying to make it sound like church policy
            The 3rd is not even accessible.

            If you're a "catholic" i'm willing to bet that the group you belong to is not even sactionned by the RC church..

          • Russell Lissuzzo

            Sorry, I don’t dance with snakes, or commune with GOD through pet gerbils.
            The pretender that is the Pope will attempt to pervert the Church. I Don’t Trust Jesuits.
            Maybe he will “fundamentally change” the Tenets of the Catholic Church?
            You know when GOD gave us HIS WORDS that was a LONG TIME AGO. Things like faggotry; a long time ago it was perverse, but today perversity of nature has become a “right”!

          • Russell Lissuzzo

            Bye the way the limited list of sites to research was just that. If you were interested in becoming enlightened you should have taken that start and gone as far as you wanted . I gave my opinion based on years of the gathering of information on a myriad of happenings in History not focused on one area. I’m not smart, I have been a History and Political Science freak for a long time and I am passionate for reading and understanding. BYE.

          • Attila Iskander

            Your kind of “enligntenment” no one needs

          • Russell Lissuzzo

            OK Tilly. I stated my beliefs and understanding of History. Do I have to say “you win”? I didn’t attack your perception or belief, I just stated mine. Oh well.

          • Attila Iskander

            My Mom’s best friend was one of those Catholics who spiralled into the more extreme.sub-groups of Cathilicism
            She got so bad that the wouldn’t even goo into a Cathlic Church that did not celebrate Mass in Latin.
            Even for the Weddings of 3 of her kids and the baptism of a bunch of her grandkids
            That is not Catholic, and it’s even less Christian.

          • Russell Lissuzzo

            I go to Pray at GOD”S HOUSE not a Catholic Church. There are Traditionalists that grew up with the Latin application on Mass; I think they believe that “modernization” detracts from the Adoration.
            Personally, the “vegas style” commentary/joking is tiresome at best.
            I haven’t heard any parish leadership come out of a Priests’ mouth regarding the moral decline of the Nation and the unfettered attack on GOD and specifically Christianity by the marists that control this country.. Advising and being Courageous and Forthright is a big part of a Priest’s responsibility as defined.

  • Douglas J. Bender

    Would teaching congregants how to do a “rain dance” accomplish the same thing?

  • trapper

    What kind of “Christian” would sit through a sermon blaming European civilization for heating up the climate? The irony is that the enemy of the early Christian church and Judaism were the nature based religions of the time and these ersatz religions very much resemble modern environmentalism.

  • http://www.facebook.com/russell.cook.7334 Russell Cook

    Before churches cave into a moral/religious imperative to save the Earth from global warming, their members will first have to take into serious consideration whether the 9th Commandment was broken via the accusation that skeptic climate scientists are ‘paid industry money to lie and fabricate false reports.’

  • clearthinker

    Due to pastors agreeing to preach green headline should read: “Pastors Without Balls.” I guess east coast liberalism have reduced the size of those ministers gonads or in some cases have been excised altogether. Bunch of punk pastors.

  • marcthepig

    It truly is The People’s Republic of Maryland.

  • Justin OB

    Seems about right since global warming cultists preach this bunk as gospel

  • jennylynn

    Whaterver happened to separation of church and state? I guess it doesn’t apply when its convenient for the left wing agenda.

  • deannaM

    it might be different if these “green” agendas actually did what they say but from what i have seen so far none of them even address the issues they claim to remedy and in every case ive seen so far like smartmeters and CFL light bulbs they have had the opposite effect and are actually causing more harm than not and the huge multi national corporations causing most of the ecological harm on this planet are exempt .this is a nature killing corporate agenda where chinese products are being mandated by government in the interest of stopping something that isnt even occuring in the fashion stated .every human activity monitored and regulated while our gov sells the forests and the trees off to multinationals and all the corporations “sustain” themselves while all life forms are reduced to an economic unit or eliminated as “pests” and depopulated

  • KN

    Preach on …

  • billed

    This is only the start as NAU North American Union takes hold and will rewrite the Constitution. After all the Bush family already own vast trunks of Water Rights in the Middle West. Plus Mineral Fracking Rights are not owned by whoever has the Land. Its all a matter of researching history considering either Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush will be President in 2 years time after Obama..

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3308.htm

    • RogerP77

      Great points!!

  • RogerP77

    Any excuse to push the global warming lie so they can bring in Agenda 21 and Carbon taxes to wipe out the middle class. BTW, as many churches are 501 (3) C churches and their ministers are members of the “Clergy Response Team” (FEMA employees) they will naturally be saying this scientifically provable nonsense to their flocks. It is part of the deal to keep their tax exemption and get their secret payments. The “Clergy Response Team” is there to make sure the flocks meekly comply with a tyrannical government. This. of course, includes the mega churches such as Rick Warren’s. State run religion to make sure we REALLY worship the State as God.

  • qwikslver

    You need to nip this jerk in the bud. There is just too many laws and once they get rolling there is no end to it.