Texas: logicians need not apply

See, said I'd blog light today and look what happens. Texas messes with me, that's what.

Via Boing Boing and Electrolite (and already commented upon by Jo):

[A]ccording to the office of Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Denison Unitarian church isn’t really a religious organization—at least for tax purposes. Its reasoning: the organization “does not have one system of belief.”

Never before—not in this state or any other—has a government agency denied Unitarians tax-exempt status because of the group’s religious philosophy, church officials say. Strayhorn’s ruling clearly infringes upon religious liberties, said Dan Althoff, board president for the Denison congregation that was rejected for tax exemption by the comptroller’s office.

Questions about the issue were referred to Jesse Ancira, the comptroller’s top lawyer, who said Strayhorn has applied a consistent standard — and then stuck to it. For any organization to qualify as a religion, members must have “simply a belief in God, or gods, or a higher power,” he said.

I guess taking the cue from the federal government in recognizing UU as a religion would be illogical.

Here's the money quote:

Strayhorn vows to continue the legal fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. “Otherwise, any wannabe cult who dresses up and parades down Sixth Street on Halloween will be applying for an exemption,” she said in a April 23 news release.

That's UU, all right - a wannabe cult. She sure does have us pegged. The jig is up, Jo. Originated in 1500 A.D., cultural and intellectual history spanning generations, membership including such notables as John Adams, Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen, William Howard Taft ... and it all boils down to a couple dozen flag-waving atheists wanting to march in the Podunk County parade. She's onto us.

Actually, I don't have a definition of "cult" handy, but I doubt UU would qualify - we intensely dislike being dictated to. Getting UUs to agree on anything is like shooing frogs into a wheelbarrow. What the hell kind of cultists would we make? No, I think the real reason Texas denies UU's tax-exempt status is that UU marries gays and lesbians.

Comments

[jo]

Sorry, I finally learn how to do it, and I can't stop doing it...

[pam]

Every time you edit your post, you send a new TrackBack ping. I too learned this the embarrassing way!

[jo]

And now I still want to edit it further and add bells and whistles. This seems to be a flaw in the system!

[pam]

This Strayhorn person gives civil servants a bad name. I should report her at our next secret society meeting.

[Alicia]

Makes me embarrassed to be from Texas. Our UU is great here, in my town. How can this happen? Ugh. So much for religious freedoms. How does this person get to decide what some other church believes in?

This is all because GW's from here. Double Ugh. Texas is getting to be a real pain in the hat.

[Anthony]

Uh oh--here comes trouble.....
OK, if the Unitarians (one of Protestantisms more mellow offshoots) can be labeled "a cult" because they do "not have one system of belief" my obvious reponse would be: what church does? Hey, State of Texas, go grab a comprehensive religious history textbook and then tell me which church, since the founding of Christianity, has had EXACTLY "one system of belief"! Answer: NONE. NONE!!
From the very beginning, religious squabbling has plagued Christianity. What we think of as "official Christianity" wasn't hammered into place until the 6th Century or so (thank you St. Augustine) and if you think the Arians, the Albegensians, the Joachimites, the Poor Fransiscans, the Hussites and others were mere accidents, well that's exactly what they said about the Church of Rome. Prostetantism? It took one and half minutes after Luther nailed 95 Theses to that Church Wall for them to have a falling out with one another. Attention Carol Strayhorn: if you think that the Jesus worshipped by the Lutherans is the same as the Jesus worshipped by the Nazarenes (or even the Anabaptists) then you've been breathing Houston smog for way too long (Houston, thanks to Pretzel Prez's "Compassionate Conservatism" now has the worst air quality IN AMERICA!--just a reminder: Kerry in 2004)! So if I were the UUs, I would immediately launch a discrimination suit agasinst ALL OF CHRISITIANITY based on the idea that it does not have "one system of belief" (OSOB)either. Never did, never will. In fact, the only religions which do have OSOB, as Wonder Pam pointed out, are in fact cults, who are very, very picky about what they're allowed to believe in. I'm fairly sure that David Koresh (or Brigham Young for that matter) did not exactly go around saying "hmm, what divergent beliefs shall I tolerate today" (and for the record, there are several LDS offshoots as well operating in and out of Utah).
I normally don't pander to paranoid conspiraqcy theories (except for the ones blaming Bush for everything) but Wonder Pam's point about the UUs and gay marriages has a nasty, all-too-possible point to it.

[Jack]

look if you want to recognized a real religion perhaps you shouldn't accept at random all beliefs that come your way. The issue isn't about having only one system of belief its about keeping the count down in the thousands. Guess what, God didn't leave alternate endings. Things happened a certain way. Opinions are subject to discussion. Historical facts are not.

[pam]

Look, Anthony, your patented rant techniques snagged us a live one! Do you want to watch it wriggle a while before I throw it back?

[Jo]

God sure was a tricky one, wasn't he! You'd think someone "almighty" would be a little more clear, wouldn't you? Sheesh.