What a great story Aqua! Thanx for sharing that. When I was 5 someone came to our door collecting for some children I believe. It was a nice lady and her description of children in need was devastating to hear. I had no idea people were in this dire situation. I immediately told my Granny I had better give all $4 that I had saved to help these kids. Then the lady seemed to feel bad as she had been quite impassioned. They convinced me it was just fine to only give $1. Back then you never knew if it was a legitimate cause or something like Oral Roberts. Today you can do the research.

Very clever , Wynski.

Cant we just give them both downtown Clearwater and watch them kill each other off- much easier (not a literal statement about killing- in case foolproof is reading and wants to get all crazy)

@ Balletlady,
Yes, I remember Soupy getting in very hot water for doing the same thing. Millions of people sent him a dollar! So funny.

Thanks for that explanation. There’s an argument that religious organizations shouldn’t have to submit to government scrutiny, particularly the names of donors, and regardless of its validity, I think the reality is that it’s going to be at least a generation before there might be political will to

However, I think there’s an unassailable argument that all organizations granted the benefit of tax-exempt status – which means that they are given an effective back-door subsidy, particularly when it comes to not even having to pay their own way in the community through normal obligations like property taxes – should at least be required to have an independent private auditor prepare annual or bi-annual reports available internally as well as to the public who provide the benefit. If nothing else that’s an important check against fraud and theft, which is exactly why responsible religious groups submit to such internal audits voluntarily and as a responsibility to their members – and those groups should be allies in making sure that all organizations play by basic rules of good internal governance. Such reporting and disclosure would allow members to be properly informed of how their support is being used, and would serve to expose the bad actors to scrutiny.

Although the US has a good system of oversight for non-religious charities, all of it does no good without enforcement. Instead, the IRS waits for “whistleblowers” to step forward and bring the malfeasance of some of those in the leadership of charities to light, and the media have to get involved for pressure to be brought to bear on politicians who then pressure the IRS into acting.

The sad truth is that the IRS does little or nothing to examine non-religious charitable organizations, and the law has completely tied its hands where churches are concerned. The UK’s approach to regulation of religious organizations might do much to stop the thieves, but to be effective, the standards and criteria must be enforced. Where non-religious charities are concerned, the IRS could examine a certain number of charities yearly, but because no income would be forthcoming from most of the audits, it is unlikely to undertake such an effort.

Mike Rinder, your blog and Leah Remini’s and your television series are so persuasive that it is amazing and frustrating that there has been so little response from those who could put an end to the thuggish and devious practices of the CoS. At the very least, the political apparatus in Florida should join hands and rescue the citizens of Clearwater from the suffocating presence in their lovely town of the CoS.

Yes Aqua watch as will I, Mike has a much better understanding of the dynamic between the CoS the IRS than I ever will.

Watch the show tonight. I hope it helps answer some of these things.

“…they do NOT qualify as a tax exempt org under US law.”

Wynski, I don’t disbelieve you. I’m not knowledgeable about such things. But if what you’ve stated is true, then why can’t pointing out and proving the illegality of Co$’s tax exempt status to the correct people be the means of getting it taken away?

Yes! Whenever I get discouraged I remind myself that the Teflon don (Gotti’s nick) was finally brought down with slow, painstaking, methodical precision (thank you, Robert Mueller) while Al Capone tumbled from his mighty invincibility due to a dumb error. Too cheap to pay his taxes so they got him that way. But Elliot Ness still deserves a great deal of credit for all the good detecting he did to bring Scarface being brought down , I think. He kept the FOCUS on Capone.

Who knows the Who or the What or the How that will finally bring Miscavige and his fake cherch down. There are dedicated/intelligent/caring/well connected people “gunning” for him (OSA note the quotes – that means its a figure of speech and not to be taken literally).

Interesting times.

Tick Tock.