Food for thought by Wayne Weedon
Despite the risk of being imprisoned in several countries, including Canada, and the risk of being publicly executed in some other countries, Sigmund Freud openly published his views on religion. In his opinion, religion is a form of insanity, a delusion and a paranoia. Many of Freud’s contemporaries were too afraid of blasphemy laws to openly agree with Freud’s declarations. Albert Einstein evaded using the word religion when he stated, insanity is repeating the same rituals again and again and each time expecting a different outcome. Richard Dawkins, in his book, The God Delusion, defines the word delusion as, “a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence, especially as a symptom of psychiatric disorder.”
More than two-thousand years ago, Lucius Annaeus Seneca stated, “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.” When Queen Elizabeth I of England forcibly seized the English throne, as a tyrant, she found religion to be a very useful tool. Despite not being the legitimate heir, Elizabeth snatched the English throne and, being determined to eliminate all competition, had many enemies executed, including the legal heir to the throne, Mary, Queen of Scots, who, under orders from Elizabeth, was apprehended and beheaded. Pope Pius V denounced Elizabeth in his 1570 Papal Bull, “Elizabeth, the pretended queen of England and a slave of wickedness … with whom as in a sanctuary the most pernicious of all have found refuge. This very woman, having seized the crown and monstrously usurped the place of supreme head of the church in all England together with the chief authority and jurisdiction belonging to it, has once again reduced this same kingdom … to a miserable ruin.”
Elizabeth resurrected the religion which King Henry VIII had invented. Like popes do today, Elizabeth declared herself to be infallible, stating, she takes orders directly from God. Elizabeth exempted The Church of England from taxation and decreed, all English citizens must pay The Church ten percent of their income, they must attend church services regularly, refrain from doing any work or play on the Sabbath, praise God and their queen regularly, and refrain from uttering any blasphemous or heretical statements. The maximum penalty for not obeying any of these laws was public torture and execution.
Queen Elizabeth’s laws became part of Canada’s English heritage. Slowly, many of these laws have been rescinded. The last of the Canadian blasphemy laws were finally repealed in December 2018. In Canada, tax exemption does not only remain for The Church of England, but this exemption has also been expanded to include all religious institutions, charitable organisations, educational institutions, and not for profit businesses. These tax-exempt laws are bankrupting Canada.
As reported by CBC’s, The Fifth Estate, billions of tax-free dollars are legally being taken out of Canada by tax-exempt enterprises. Once this money crosses the border, it is not followed. We have no idea where it ends up. The loss of this money creates a tax shortfall which must be made up by taxpayers whose taxes are being continually raised. Trade unions commonly support charitable organisations such as United Way which takes millions of tax-free dollars out of Canada. The CEO of United Way is paid well over a million dollars a year, while volunteers are encouraged by various governments and unions to not only work for free, but they are also expected to donate some of their hard-earned money which as contribution to the CEO’s salary.
Not only do average Canadian taxpayers have to make any shortfall of taxes, but they must also put up with the rampant inflation caused by billions of dollars being legally taken out of the country. The institutions which remove this tax-free money, will convert it to another currency. As more Canadian currency is offered for sale its value keeps going down. Most goods sold in Canada are imported. As our dollar is devalued, the price of imported goods climbs, resulting in rampant inflation.
Money which leaves Canada becomes dead money. Our governments receive no revenue from it. Money circulating in Canada earns taxes for the various levels of government every time someone makes a purchase, pays wages, or earns interest and dividends.
How many millions, or perhaps billions, of dollars has the Billy Graham organisations taken out of Canada? Yet, when they came back to Winnipeg to build a Youth for Christ building, they cry poverty, and they beg for donations and financial help from the various levels of governments as well as from individuals. Why not bring a few of the tax-free dollars back into Canada to build their new edifice?
England’s tax-exempt status of religious organisations was one of the main reasons why the founding fathers of the United States of America were unanimously insistent that Church and State must remain separate. They declared that governments have no business meddling with religion. Religion, in their opinion, is a private and personal matter.
Benjamin Franklin stated, "When a religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one".
During the American presidential campaign of 1880, the Christian Union made the admission that, of the nineteen men who, up to that time, had held the office of President of the United States, not one had ever been a member of a Christian church. Officially, USA has declared, “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”
John Adams, the second president, felt so strongly about religion he told Thomas Jefferson, "This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it." Jefferson agreed.
Is it not time to relieve the extra tax burden on Canadian citizens? Is it not time to begin taxing individuals and organisations in an equal and just manner? Isn’t that what happens in a true democracy?
