Getbig Misc Discussion Boards > Religious Debates & Threads
Prayer and Religion in Public Life
AbrahamG:
--- Quote from: The Scott on November 09, 2021, 06:39:09 PM ---Primarily due to the simple fact that the unborn are held innocent and murderers are deserving of death. Take it from a Cashew, my friend.
--- End quote ---
My point is that they are politically choosing which rules to follow and who to apply them to.
The Scott:
--- Quote from: AbrahamG on November 09, 2021, 06:43:38 PM ---My point is that they are politically choosing which rules to follow and who to apply them to.
--- End quote ---
Men are only men, especially when they choose to behave as such.
And my point is the truth and not because I say it is.
Skeletor:
Kenneth Copeland is the wealthiest pastor in America. So why does he live in a tax-free Texas mansion?
At his 2015 Southwest Believers’ Convention in Fort Worth, wealthy Texas televangelist Kenneth Copeland explained how he wound up living in a mansion. It all started when God told him years earlier to build that dream home his wife Gloria had described to him.
“Minister this house to her,” he recalled the almighty saying. “It is part of your prosperity.”
Her vision was vast: Rising up three stories and sporting white columns in front, the six-bedroom, six-bath estate on the shores of an exclusive lake community outside of Fort Worth has enough room to fit nearly four basketball courts — more than 18,000 square feet of living space in all.
“You may think that house is too big,” Copeland told the believers’ convention. “You may think it's too grand. I don't care what you think. I heard from heaven. Glory to God, hallelujah!”
What he didn’t mention is that his heavenly plans are being underwritten by Texas taxpayers. Under a little-known statute that county appraisers say is too vague and permissive, the $7 million mansion owned by Copeland’s Eagle Mountain International Church is considered a parsonage — a clergy residence — qualifying for a 100 percent tax break.
That means Copeland’s church gets a pass on what would otherwise be an annual property tax bill exceeding $150,000 — money that other local taxpayers must backfill to cover the cost of schools, police and firefighters.
A months-long Houston Chronicle investigation of ministers’ tax-free residences found no shortage of extravagant homes in high-dollar locales. At least two dozen were worth over $1 million even using the artificially low values that exempt properties typically carry.
Yet even in that elite company, Copeland’s tax-free clergy residence stands out as an opulent illustration of the lengths the law allows religious organizations to go in claiming the tax break. The only limit on the dollar value churches can exempt resides in the imagination of pastors like Copeland.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/unfair-burden/article/kenneth-copeland-wealth-pastor-tax-free-mansion-16662283.php
Dos Equis:
Actor — a former atheist — details moment he fell in love with Jesus, shares his journey to faith while working in Hollywood: 'I knew that if there was a heaven, I wouldn't be going there'
SARAH TAYLOR
January 12, 2022
Former "Growing Pains" actor Kirk Cameron says that he was moved to ask Jesus into his life at the tender young age of 17 — when his child acting career was at its pinnacle.
What are the details?
Cameron, who starred on the hit 1980s sitcom, said that he began acting at 14 years old — and it didn't take long for Hollywood to get its narcissistic hooks into him.
Luckily for the longtime entertainer, he was moved to ask Jesus Christ into his life and lived the rest of his life thereafter as a changed man.
During a recent appearance on the PragerU "Stories of Us" series, the actor said that a note written by his daughter prompted him to consider his former Hollywood superstardom.
The note said, "It's the same boiling water that softens potatoes that hardens eggs. It just depends on what you're made of."
“So the same difficult challenges and influences of Hollywood that turn some people sour and make them narcissistic and bitter and joyless and afraid to not fit in is the same pressure that actually softened my heart and caused me to embrace gratitude and be thankful for the life that I have and want to use a platform and this Hollywood industry to advance the good,” he explained. “I really think it’s what you’re made of. And if you don’t know what you’re made of, don’t look to your environment or your industry or other people to give you an identity. There was somebody who made you — ask Him. And you can be sure that the ending of the story is gonna be fantastic.”
Don't miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.
Cameron said that by just 17 years old, he was living the life that most child actors dream of: riding around in high-priced sports cars with fellow '80s staples like Michael J. Fox and receiving more attention than any young, impressionable teen could ever want — but he was worried that it wasn't enough to sustain him for all eternity.
Cameron said that the moment shines clearly in his mind's eye.
After dropping off a female thespian at her acting class, Cameron said that he began to wonder if there was more to life than simply living most every teenager's dream.
“I knew that if there was a heaven, I wouldn’t be going there,” he admitted, adding that he was convicted of living his life with an attitude of arrogance rather than the heart of a servant and a spirit of faithfulness.
He said that he realized right then and there that he would need to ask Jesus into his heart for forgiveness and to turn over a new leaf.
“God, if you’re there, would you please show me?" he recalled praying.
"Would you forgive me for the wrong things I’ve done and make me the person that You want me to be?”
Cameron, now 51 years old, is living life with faith at the forefront — with his wife, a fellow Christian, a woman he met on the set of his beloved '80s show.
While certainly the most important, coming to Christ wasn’t the only way Cameron changed, thanks at least in part to Hollywood. He was also introduced to his wife on the set of “Growing Pains.”
“I found a girl,” Cameron said. “She’s beautiful on the inside; she’s beautiful on the outside. I married her and we’ve been married for 30 years. You have no idea how much more valuable that is. I’ve got six grown children who love God and still ask me my opinions about things, who still love to come home and be with me and my wife, and I’m on PragerU’s ‘Stories of Us.’ I mean, the story doesn’t really end much better than this.”
https://www.theblaze.com/news/kirk-cameron-faith-journey-hollywood
ThisisOverload:
--- Quote from: Skeletor on December 16, 2021, 08:43:28 AM ---Kenneth Copeland is the wealthiest pastor in America. So why does he live in a tax-free Texas mansion?
At his 2015 Southwest Believers’ Convention in Fort Worth, wealthy Texas televangelist Kenneth Copeland explained how he wound up living in a mansion. It all started when God told him years earlier to build that dream home his wife Gloria had described to him.
“Minister this house to her,” he recalled the almighty saying. “It is part of your prosperity.”
Her vision was vast: Rising up three stories and sporting white columns in front, the six-bedroom, six-bath estate on the shores of an exclusive lake community outside of Fort Worth has enough room to fit nearly four basketball courts — more than 18,000 square feet of living space in all.
“You may think that house is too big,” Copeland told the believers’ convention. “You may think it's too grand. I don't care what you think. I heard from heaven. Glory to God, hallelujah!”
What he didn’t mention is that his heavenly plans are being underwritten by Texas taxpayers. Under a little-known statute that county appraisers say is too vague and permissive, the $7 million mansion owned by Copeland’s Eagle Mountain International Church is considered a parsonage — a clergy residence — qualifying for a 100 percent tax break.
That means Copeland’s church gets a pass on what would otherwise be an annual property tax bill exceeding $150,000 — money that other local taxpayers must backfill to cover the cost of schools, police and firefighters.
A months-long Houston Chronicle investigation of ministers’ tax-free residences found no shortage of extravagant homes in high-dollar locales. At least two dozen were worth over $1 million even using the artificially low values that exempt properties typically carry.
Yet even in that elite company, Copeland’s tax-free clergy residence stands out as an opulent illustration of the lengths the law allows religious organizations to go in claiming the tax break. The only limit on the dollar value churches can exempt resides in the imagination of pastors like Copeland.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/unfair-burden/article/kenneth-copeland-wealth-pastor-tax-free-mansion-16662283.php
--- End quote ---
He is the Devil himself.
All religious institutions should pay taxes.
There is a big church in Houston, Second Baptist i believe. One of the Pastors lived in a $400k house inside a gated community. All paid for by church offerings and tax free. He drove a new BMW 5 series and wore $3k dollar suits. Used to preach that it's ok to be rich, as long as you pay it back to God.
Unreal.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version