{"id":2490,"date":"2011-12-17T22:51:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-17T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2011\/12\/how-we-all-pay-for-the-huge-tax-privileges-granted-to-religion-its-time-to-tax-the-church.html"},"modified":"2011-12-17T22:51:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-17T22:51:00","slug":"how-we-all-pay-for-the-huge-tax-privileges-granted-to-religion-its-time-to-tax-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2011\/12\/how-we-all-pay-for-the-huge-tax-privileges-granted-to-religion-its-time-to-tax-the-church.html","title":{"rendered":"How We All Pay For the Huge Tax Privileges Granted to Religion — It’s Time to Tax the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

by Adam Lee
AlterNet<\/p>\n

Would the world be better off without religion? That was the topic of a recent debate in the NYU Intelligence Squared series. One of the audience questions concerned the enormous wealth hoarded by churches, which Christian apologist Dinesh D\u2019Souza defended as follows:
I think in the case of the Vatican, the wealth of the Vatican is in priceless treasures, tapestries, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, art. Now, let\u2019s remember\u2026 it was popes, the Medici popes and so on, who commissioned those paintings. If it wasn\u2019t for Catholicism, we wouldn\u2019t have the Sistine Chapel.<\/p>\n

Read the rest here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Adam LeeAlterNet Would the world be better off without religion? That was the topic of a recent debate in the NYU Intelligence Squared series. One of the audience questions concerned the enormous wealth hoarded by churches, which Christian apologist Dinesh D\u2019Souza defended as follows: I think in the case of the Vatican, the wealth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHow We All Pay For the Huge Tax Privileges Granted to Religion -- It's Time to Tax the Church<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Adam LeeAlterNetWould the world be better off without religion? That was the topic of a recent debate in the NYU Intelligence Squared series. 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